New Beginnings
by Chakat StarDust
Summary: Infiltration of a secret scientific base turns up a clone of Loki. The Avengers take the clone, soon named Neo, under their wing. When Loki is brought to earth in exile for his crimes he finds he can learn a few things from his child-like double.
1. Chapter 1

Star: New story! Hope you all enjoy!

Steve ran through the white halls of the underground laboratory. It was rumoured to be a weapons facility of some kind, with futuristic dangerous weapons being manufactured, which was why the Avengers had been called in to do something about it. So far the tight security bristling with weapons was a pretty good indication that something big was happening down here.

He was looking for the weapons, but so far all he'd found were labs of some kind. He wondered if the others were having any better luck on the floors they were meant to clear. Two guards stood outside a closed door, and thinking that was as good a lead as any, he charged them and knocked them both out. He pulled the doors open with a screech of metal and stepped inside.

He interrupted a man in a doctor's coat as he was about to administer a syringe with a greenish liquid in it to a struggling person tied to a hospital bed. Two other doctors, or what he assumed were doctors, shouted in surprise. Knowing he shouldn't take time to be too careful, Steve threw his shield, bouncing it first off the doctor with the syringe, knocking him out and it ricocheted into the second doctor. The last doctor he took out with a solid punch to the jaw and then he turned his attention to the bed and felt his heart nearly stop.

"Loki?" He gasped, staring at the tied down figure. He certainly looked like Loki, pale skin, dark hair, green eyes. But the more he looked, the more he doubted. Those green eyes were huge with fear, pupils dilated to the point where only a thin sliver of green could be seen around them. The hair was wrong too, cropped too short and falling messily about his head, not slicked back neatly. He stared at Steve, pulling uselessly at the ties, face terrified and uncomprehending.

"What's your name, son?" Steve asked, trying a different approach.

"I-I don't have one." The boy replied. Steve couldn't help but think of him as just a boy, not with the way the confusion and fear softened his face into something childlike.

"Why not?" Steve asked.

"They… they said they made me, said I was a thing, things… things don't need names." There was none of Loki's light accent in the boy's voice and it was the voice of a child, innocent and bewildered. "How can I be a thing?"

"You're not." Steve was convinced now that this was not Loki. Loki would feel it undignified to play-act like this, and besides, they knew Loki was in Asgard, being held on trial, Thor visited him every chance he could now that the Bifrost was fixed. He set about unstrapping the boy from the bed. "My name is Steve, I can get you out of here, would you like that?"

The boy sat up, looking afraid, but hopeful. "Outside? With the sun and the moon and the stars and the trees?" He asked.

"Yeah, you've never seen those things before?" Steve asked, feeling troubled.

"No, I only have information about them." The boy replied, touching the back of his neck.

"How old are you, son?"

"I don't know. I woke up, like this." The boy gestured to himself. "They didn't have any kind of clock or anything for me."

Feeling even more troubled, Steve touched his comm. "Iron Man, do you have all the data from the computers in this place?"

"**Got that done ages ago, Captain sweet-cheeks." **Tony replied.

"Avengers, are we about ready to go?" Steve asked, ignoring Tony's attempt at flirting. Once he'd gotten the okay from them all he turned to look at the boy again, who was just sitting there, watching him. "We're going now." He said, holding out his hand to the boy. The boy looked at it, biting his lip anxiously before grasping Steve's hand and allowing him to pull him to his feet.

Once the kid had a hold of his hand he didn't seem to want to let go. Thankfully there were no more guards to deal with, so Steve just ran with the kid in tow. By the time they'd made it up to the ground floor the kid was breathing heavily, like he'd never had to run before. His gait was awkward, like he hadn't figure out how to use his body properly yet.

The rest of the Avengers got to where they were moments later, and immediately noticed his new friend. "What the hell?" Tony demanded, his face plate coming up to get a better look. "Steve, is that-?"

"No, it's not." The kid was already trying to hide behind him.

"It wouldn't be." Thor said, sounding mystified. "I saw him myself only yesterday, there is no way he could escape."

Hulk stepped up, sniffing the air. "Not smell right." He growled.

"Found him downstairs, says the scientists here made him." Steve explained. "It's alright, you just look like someone we know." He said to the boy, trying to reassure him. "I'm sure the computer files will tell us more. Right now, let's get out of here." He took the kid's hand again and led him towards the hole they'd blasted through the compound's wall.

They came out into star-studded night and the kid stopped, staring up at the sky with his mouth hanging open. "You alright, son?" Steve asked.

"I've got pictures in my head of what it's supposed to look like, but this… the real thing is so… so much more… just more." The boy said, waving his arms in the air. Steve ruffled his short hair.

"I know son."

"Anybody else think this is the weirdest thing they've ever seen?" Clint asked. Tony nodded his head. "Good, I thought I was the only one."

"There's so much colour, inside it's all white but out here…" The kid turned around, trying to take in everything. "And the smells, and the sounds, there's just so much."

"Okay, first it was kind of cute, now it's just heartbreaking." Tony murmured to Steve. "Has this guy never been outside, his whole life?"

"No." Steve answered. "But I get the feeling he hasn't been alive that long." He gently gripped the kid's arm. "Come on, we can't stay here, someone might come looking." The boy nodded and grabbed Steve's hand again, letting him lead him into the woods surrounding the secret laboratory.

The quinjet picked them up and Steve learned that his new charge didn't seem to enjoy flying very much. At least he didn't throw up, though he was looking a little greenish around the gills by the time they landed on the Helicarrier. There were a few stares as the Avengers led the boy through the halls to Fury's office, but no one asked any questions.

Fury merely raised an eyebrow at them when they got inside. "So this is what you found at the compound?" He asked calmly. "Thought he was supposed to be in Asgard?"

"He is." Thor answered. "This is someone different."

"And I got the files for him." Tony said. "We might all want to sit down for this."

"Coulson, take our new guest to get something to eat." Fury ordered. The boy looked at the agent nervously.

"Come on son, we've got a good cafeteria here." Coulson said gently.

"It's okay, son, go with Coulson." Steve encouraged when the kid looked at him. The kid trailed Coulson out the door, still looking quite anxious.

"Now, what have you found, Stark?"

"Our new friend's a clone of Loki, though that was obvious, seems they got a hold of a sample of his blood somehow." Tony started.

"One of the mercenaries we got to help him, no doubt, probably sold it to the highest bidder." Clint growled.

"Yeah, yeah, so they had a few mistakes then got lucky with him, grew him in about a month's time. Oh, that's just Matrix-weird." Tony said, making a face at his screen.

"What?"

"He's got an implant in the back of his head, right at the neck that allowed them to download information straight into his brain so they didn't have to teach him to talk or read or anything."

"What did they make him for?" Fury interrupted.

"Apparently they wanted him to be a weapon, an assassin or something similar to that." Tony explained. "But apparently he was a failure."

"And why was that?"

"Free will. Says 'subject exhibits dangerous amount of free will, must eliminate in next subject, this subject considered failure'." Tony said. "Looks like they decided to keep him just to run tests on him, first and foremost testing the super soldier serum they'd come up with."

"That must have been what I interrupted them doing." Steve realized. "How long ago was he woken up?"

"About seven days." Tony answered. "I guess that would technically be his birthday."

"What are we going to do with him?" Natasha asked.

"Shouldn't we leave that up to him?"

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Star: What do you think?


	2. Chapter 2

Star: I own nothing but my OC and this plot!

Coulson didn't take the boy down to the cafeteria. He decided there would be too many whispers going around. He took him to his office instead, which was stocked with its own mini-fridge, coffee makers and assorted snacks.

"You want something to drink?" He asked the Loki lookalike.

"Um…" The boy's face twisted in confusion. "I've only ever had water sir, I don't know if I like anything else."

"Just call me Phil." Coulson replied pleasantly. "Alright, I guess we'll do a bit of experimenting then. Have you ever tasted anything?"

"Uh, no? They fed me on this mush, which didn't really taste like anything, but it was supposed to be full of vitamins." The kid replied.

"We'll go with hot chocolate." Coulson said, dumping a bit of the hot chocolate powder into a mug and pouring hot water into it. "I don't know anyone who doesn't like hot chocolate." He poured a small amount of milk in it and handed it to the boy. "Careful, sip it slowly, it's hot."

The boy took a sip and his eyes widened in surprised delight. "It's delicious, is this what is known as sweet?"

"Yes it is." Coulson said, amused by the kid's delight. The boy sipped his hot chocolate quietly, staring around the room. Coulson took the opportunity to get a better look at him. He was dressed in a plain white t-shirt and white pants. He looked scrawny and gangly. Coulson thought that he looked to be about in his late teens or early twenties, but the inquisitive look on his face gave him a much younger appearance. His black hair was short, but still flopped into his vivid green eyes. He definitely looked like Loki, though a softened, younger Loki.

"Is that Steve?" He suddenly asked, touching the signed Captain America poster on the wall.

"Yes, that's Steve. He's also Captain America, he's a hero."

"Hero, that's somebody who helps other people, right?" Coulson nodded his head. "Like he helped me?"

"Exactly, son."

"Coulson, you can bring him back in now." Fury said over Coulson's comm.

"Come on son, the big man wants us back in there." Coulson said. The boy nodded, looking anxious again and set his mug down, following Coulson back to Fury's office.

"We are trying to decide what to do with you, my young friend, and thought you should have some input." Fury said. "We can send you to school, put you in a foster home…"

"Can I stay with Steve?" The boy asked timidly.

"Why would you like to stay with Steve?" Fury asked. The boy lowered his gaze, looking a bit embarrassed.

"He's nice, and he took me away from the people who made me, he doesn't think I'm just a thing." He explained quietly.

"I think we could handle him living in the Tower with us." Steve said. "I don't think he'll cause much trouble, will you?" The boy smiled shyly and shook his head.

"Well, then he's your problem then." Fury said. "You'll have to come up with a name, but the last will be Fury."

"Why?" The boy asked, baffled.

"Standard procedure, any orphans SHIELD takes in gets the last name of the director to let the government know they're under our care." Fury explained. "Alright, get on home and get your reports to Coulson by morning."

%&%&%&%

Thankfully the Tower had quite a few spare guests rooms, so it didn't take long for them to find a place for their new resident to sleep. Steve purposely found a room that was as close to his as possible, since the kid seemed to cling to him every chance he got. Since the kid was pretty tall Steve let him borrow some of his pyjamas, since Thor was much more ripped and he slept in the nude besides.

The kid collapsed onto the bed and gave Steve an almost comical look of surprise. "It's so soft!" He exclaimed. He pushed himself back up so that he was sitting up and grinned at Steve. "This is the best day of my life."

"You're only seven days old, let's hope you've got a lot more days left to have better ones." Steve said with a crooked smile. "I'm just down the hall and everybody else will be willing to help you if you need it. Have a good night, kid."

"Goodnight Steve, thank you for saving me." The kid said as he burrowed himself into the blankets. Steve smiled and then turned out the light.

"You know, I think he's imprinted on you." Clint commented.

"What's that mean?" Steve asked.

"It's like baby birds, the first thing they see out of the egg is their mommy, that's imprinting." Clint explained. "You're the first person who's ever shown him kindness, so he's imprinted on you."

"Is that a bad thing?" Steve asked. Clint shrugged his shoulders. "I'm going to hit the hay, goodnight team."

%&%&%&%

Tony yawned and rubbed at his face. He decided it was time to stop hiding in his workshop and see if anyone had made breakfast. He took with him one of his personal computers, thinking that the kid would be at breakfast and they could figure out some things with him.

He headed upstairs and as soon as he was out of the elevator the smell of pancakes assaulted his senses, making his stomach growl loudly. "Tony, come in and partake in Bruce's wonderful pancakes!" Thor bellowed.

"Hey, just make sure you don't eat them all before I get there." Tony quipped, walking over to the table. "So, where our little Loki-clone?"

"He doesn't seem to have emerged yet." Thor replied, shovelling food into his mouth.

"I'll go get him. He might be nervous about eating with us." Steve said, putting down the newspaper he was reading. Clint immediately snatched it up and removed the comic pages. Steve came back down a moment later with the boy in tow.

"Excellent, just the guy I wanted to see." Tony powered up his computer as the kid sat down. "Figured since I was going to be up all night anyways I might as well do something useful. Came up with a list of names that might fit you, see what you think." The boy took the computer, handling it gingerly, as though he was afraid to break it. "it's a touch screen, so if you want to see what the names mean you just tap on one, okay?"

The boy did as he was told, frowning slightly in concentration, tongue tip poking out of the side of his mouth. After a few minutes he spoke. "I think I found one." Tony looked at it and gave the boy a look of surprise.

"Really, I kinda just put that name down as a joke." He admitted.

"It's not a good name?" The boy asked.

"No, there's nothing wrong with it, it's not a common name, but I kinda put it down because you reminded me of a movie." The boy tilted his head at him. "Well, you know that thing in the back of your head that downloads stuff into your brain?" The boy nodded. "There's this movie where machines have taken over the world and all the humans live in a virtual world in their mind called the Matrix. How people get connected to the Matrix and learn new things like karate is through a thing in the back of their heads like what you got. The name you picked is the main character's name. It means new, so it fits."

"Do you like it? That's all that really matters." Steve informed him.

"Yeah, I like it." The boy answered.

"Well then, nice to meet you, Neo Fury." Tony held out his hand for Neo to shake. Neo took it with a bemused smile.

"Now that that's out of the way, you need to eat up, Neo, you're too skinny." Steve said sternly, already loading up a plate for Neo.

"Aww, lookit Steve, mommying our little stray birdie." Tony cooed, making a flush rise on both Steve and Neo's faces.

"Ignore the moron, he's just being an idiot, as usual." Natasha said, throwing Tony a glare.

"He's just teasing, right, is that what that is?" Neo asked.

"Yeah, I'm just teasing you kiddo." Tony said, ruffling up Neo's hair.

"All teasing aside, you do need to eat more." Steve interjected sternly once more, making Tony cackle with laughter. Neo smiled at him.

"Okay, Steve. It's nice of you to care about me." With that everyone went awkwardly silent, once again reminded that this kid had a very strange and sad beginning to his oddly short life.

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Star: Review plz!


	3. Chapter 3

Star: I own nothing!

"I think the first thing we need to do is get you some clothes of your own." Steve declared, looking at Neo in the oversized jeans and t-shirt he'd been given.

"Why?" Neo asked, his big green eyes honestly baffled.

"Well, for one thing you look like a little kid playing dress-up with his dad's clothes." Clint said with a chuckle. "And for another thing if you're wearing Steve's clothes he's going to run out."

"Oh, I guess that makes sense." Neo's brow wrinkled as he thought about that. "Don't clothes cost a lot of money though?"

"Kiddo, I'm Tony fucking Stark and I'm rich enough to buy whatever mall you go to for your clothes. You're our responsibility, we're footing the bill for whatever you need. Kids don't have to worry about who's paying for stuff." Tony said.

"But I'm not a kid." Neo protested.

"You are seven days old." Thor pointed out. "That would make you an infant."

"We're not talking about how old your body appears to be, but where you are mentally and emotionally. You do act like a kid, which isn't a bad thing." Bruce explained. "You don't have any way of supporting yourself, no learned skills to get a job, so until you figure out what you want to do with your life, you are our kid."

"I guess that's… logical?" Neo still looked confused.

"Human beings are rarely logical, remember that and you'll do fine." Natasha advised.

"Okay, so Pepper's going to escort Neo and Steve to the mall, because she's got a better eye for fashion than any of us." Tony said. "With Captain Grandpa here, you'd probably wind up wearing slacks and plaid."

"Tony, in case you haven't noticed, I wear jeans now." Steve sighed patiently. Tony just stuck his tongue out at him.

"It's not just about fashion, Steve, it's about colour." Pepper informed him, walking out of the elevator. "I can already see that he should avoid certain colours with that pale skin tone of his." She walked up to Neo and offered him a handshake. "Pepper Potts, Tony's gotten me up to date on you, Neo."

"Uh, hello, ma'am." Pepper smiled at him.

"Just Pepper will do just fine." She said. "Now since I am still CEO, and I'm taking time out to do this, I would suggest we get going now."

"Alright, Miss Potts, we'll try not to take up too much of your time." Steve said to her.

"Steve, I've said over and over again to call me Pepper." She said with a laugh. "Alright boys, let's get going."

Steve and Neo followed her into the elevator. Steve had put on a ball cap and a jacket so less people would recognise him and bother them. Pepper took them to a mall some distance away from the Tower, with a lot of store for young adults and teenagers.

"I think we'll avoid anything to do with pop culture for now, until you figure out what you like." Pepper said decisively as they strode through the crowded mall. "You okay?" She asked Neo, who was looking paler than normal.

"Yeah, there's just… a lot of people." He said nervously. Steve squeezed his shoulder reassuringly.

"Don't worry, nothing's going to happen to you here." He assured Neo. Pepper led the way into one of the stores and started pulling shirts, jeans and jackets down and handing them to Neo.

"Now we're going to want to avoid the reds with you, and probably not too much black, that'll just give you a sallow appearance. Greens, blues and purples would probably be best, and probably lighter shades of yellow." She said, half to herself. "Go try those on, if you want a second opinion on something, Steve and I will be out here."

Neo decided it was best to show off every single piece of clothing Pepper had picked out for him. He quickly came to the conclusion that he did not like tight pants, even though, in Pepper's words, he had the right legs for it. He was much the same when it came to shirts too, preferring them loose and a little bit floppy to form-fitting.

"Those girls keep looking at me and giggling." Neo whispered to him once after emerging from the fitting room.

"They think you're cute." Pepper explained with a giggle.

"I thought cute was meant for small and fluffy things." Neo argued, brow furrowed.

"In this case it means they think you're good looking and are probably deciding whether they should flirt with you or not." Pepper giggled at Neo's lost look. "I don't think you're emotionally mature enough to want a girlfriend though."

"No thanks."

Once Pepper was satisfied with an everyday wardrobe she moved onto formal wear. "I'm not sure why…"

"If you're going to get a job someday, or go to a formal party, you're going to want at least one suit. Trust me when I say Tony's going to try to drag you to at least one of his charity balls." Pepper sighed. Neo sighed as well, already sick of shopping it seemed. He patiently allowed himself to be poked and prodded at though in order to get a proper suit fitting and then they were moving onto shoes.

Neo perked up in the shoe store when he discovered they had a kiosk for making customized Converse shoes, which would be mailed to him. He had a ball with it, eventually creating a pair of high-tops. The one side was black, and the other was blue, with a green tongue, laces and stitching. Pepper had said that it would be easy enough to get him a new pair if he ended up hated them, but Neo had seemed so pleased that Steve doubted he would.

They also got him a pair of regular running shoes, a pair of sandals, winter boots and a pair of dress shoes. Pepper wanted to get him a haircut, but Steve interjected, politely informing her about the data port in the back of Neo's head. They got him winter wear, coat, gloves, scarf and hat, along with a formal coat, a spring/fall jacket and a rain coat. By the time they were done, Neo looked ready to drop, his eyes glazed over with fatigue.

"How do people do this sort of thing?" he asked, collapsing with a groan into the car.

"Most people don't have to buy an entire new wardrobe, just replace the things they outgrow or are too destroyed to wear anymore as they need to." Pepper informed him. "You're a special case."

"Right." Neo said softly. "There's no one else like me, is there?"

"Not that we know of." Steve answered gently. Neo looked down, brow furrowing.

"Am I a freak?" He asked suddenly. "That's something that doesn't belong, isn't it? I'm a freak because I wasn't born."

"You are not a freak." Steve said sternly. "You had no control over the way you came into this world. Besides, it's not the manner in which you came to life that's important, it's what you do with that life that matters in the end."

"You really believe that?" Neo said, sounding doubtful.

"Listen, Neo, I didn't always look like this. I was a skinny little thing with all sorts of health problems, but I didn't let that control my life. I decided I was going to do whatever it took to help people, and I did." Steve told him. "You are who you choose to be."

"Seems like a big decision to make on your own." Neo said.

"It is. Some people never figure it out, some people have to go through a few changes in their lives to figure it out." Pepper added. "My advice is to find what makes you passionate, what's going to get you up in the morning and make you want to wake up in the morning."

"How do I do that though?" Neo asked.

"You have to try things." Pepper said with a smile. "You have to make mistakes and learn what you are and are not good at, what kind of things you can handle, and what you can't."

"It sounds hard." Steve ruffled Neo's hair gently.

"That's life, son, usually things don't come easy, you have to work for what you want, but it's worth it in the end."

"Is this what's known as a pep talk?" Neo asked.

"Yes." Steve chuckled. "I'm afraid you'll have to put up with a lot of those."

"I don't think I mind, especially if you're doing it to make me feel good." Neo smiled at Steve through his bangs. Steve wondered if this was how a father felt, all protective and wanting to make sure his kid had the best the world could offer.

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Star: Review plz!


	4. Chapter 4

Star: I own nothing!

Thor let the Bifrost spill him out onto the Tower's balcony and heaved a heavy sigh. He walked towards the interior of the Tower. As he walked he noticed their new charge, Neo, pressed up against the glass, looking up at the sky where the Bifrost had been. He smiled and went inside.

"What are you looking at?" He asked the boy. Neo turned big green eyes on him, but Thor only felt a momentary pang for his brother, because those eyes were so different, innocent and open.

"What was that thing, it was all swirly and lights on the inside." Neo said.

"That was the Bifrost, it is a bridge between realms." Thor explained.

"Oh, so that's how you go back home?" Neo asked.

"Well, yes, though my time is more often spent here." Thor said.

"Why?"

"I can do more here, help more people. Midgard is a very interesting place." Thor explained.

"Midgard?" Neo tilted his head at him, looking like a bright-eyed, inquisitive bird.

"It is what me and my people call Earth." Thor chuckled.

"Your people?"

"Aesir, Asgardians. Humans call us gods." Thor said with a touch of pride.

"Are you?"

"We like to think so." That made Neo smile. It was such a sweet, innocent smile. Thor wondered when the last time he'd seen a smile like that from Loki. He wondered if he'd ever see a smile like that from his brother again.

"Thor, are you alright?" Neo asked worriedly.

"Just thinking about things, hard things, sad things." Thor patted Neo's head. "It's nothing for you to worry yourself about."

"Okay…" Neo sounded doubtful.

"Neo!" Steve called, wandering up. "So this is where you're hiding."

"I'm right out in the open, how is that hiding?" Neo asked, puzzled.

"Turn of phrase." Steve explained. "Apparently Fury's got some doctors and some scientists down in the medical bay who want to have a look at you." Neo shrank back a little, looking scared. Steve placed a gentle hand on his skinny shoulder. "Don't worry, I'll be there with you."

"None of us will allow anything bad to happen to you, lad." Thor assured him. "They would be unwise to even try." Neo still looked nervous, but he grabbed hold of Steve's arm and nodded his assent.

Thor accompanied them, figuring his presence would at least make any overzealous scientists think twice about doing anything to harm the boy. They took the elevator down and found a series of men and women in white coats waiting for them. They looked up eagerly when Neo came in, reminding Thor a little bit of a pack of wolves that had spotted their prey.

"We're going to set ground rules before we let you have a look at Neo." Steve said sternly, making them turn their attention to him. "Number one, you let him know exactly what you are doing. Number two, if he's at all uncomfortable with what you are doing, stop, immediately. Number three, if he asks questions, answer them, nicely. Number four, if anything you are planning on doing has the potential to harm him, don't even think about doing it."

"But we could learn a lot about his metabolism and immune system if we are allowed to inject poisons and viruses." One of the white-coats protested. Neo hid behind Steve, wide green eyes peering with fear at the assembled scientists.

"You can do that with a sample of his blood for the most part." The head doctor of the medical bay, Gabriel, interjected, glaring at the white-coat. Doctor Gabriel was an older man, with salt-and-pepper curly hair, kind brown eyes behind wire-framed glasses and a slight paunch. The Avengers liked him, because he made a point to understand exactly what each of his patients were capable of and did not treat them all with the same general parameters, which would be foolish with a supersoldier and a god on the payroll. "In any case the first things we should be getting done with Neo is his medical exams."

"What're those?" Neo piped up.

"I'm just going to have a look at you, make sure your healthy, there's nothing wrong with you and there's nothing that might become wrong with you later on." Doctor Gabriel explained gently. "I think the rest of these ladies and gentlemen can leave while I do my work." The other scientists grumbled, but left after a stern look from both Steve and Thor.

"Not sure why Fury's allowing them to have a look at him." Steve muttered.

"Fury wants a way to make sure we don't get blindsided by Loki again." Gabriel answered, getting Neo to take off his clothes and put on a paper gown. "Though I doubt he will allow anything that will actually cause harm to our young friend here. Like I said before, they can find out a lot from his blood and DNA, so we'll take a sample and let them play with it I suppose."

He turned his attention back to Neo again, explaining everything he was doing and letting him handle his various tools if he wanted to. Thor watched Neo relax bit by bit as the good doctor chatted amiably with him, letting him inspect everything and ask as many questions as he could.

"Alright, the last things I need from you are a blood sample and a urine sample." Doctor Gabriel said. He gave Neo a small cup. "Just go into the bathroom and pee into this, close the lid, make sure there's no excess on the sides and give it to me."

"Might I ask why my scientists are saying you ran them out of here?" Fury inquired quietly, making Thor and Steve jump. Doctor Gabriel put his hands on his hips and glared at the director.

"They want to use the boy as their guinea pig." He explained.

"It would be wise to take the opportunity to discover if there are any weaknesses in Loki's physical body to exploit." Fury said slowly.

"Yes, we understand that, but we don't want Neo treated as a lab experiment or given something that's potentially dangerous to him. He's a person, not an object to be used." Steve said. Fury gave him a long, unreadable look.

"Fair enough." He said mildly. "If they have non-dangerous ideas…."

"That would be up to him, sir." Steve replied. "He doesn't have much of a good track record with scientists though."

"Oh, hello sir." Neo said, looking at Fury in surprise and nervousness as he came out of the bathroom.

"You can call me Nick, Neo." Fury said patiently. Fury nodded at Steve and Thor before walking out of the room.

"Why do I get the feeling he was testing us?" Steve muttered.

"That's what Fury does." Doctor Gabriel sighed, taking Neo's urine sample from him. He took out a needle and Neo visibly shrank back again, looking at the sharp object fearfully. "I don't much like needles either, kiddo." The doctor informed Neo lightly. "Tell you what, why doesn't Steve hold onto your hand while I do this, and you don't even have to look at it, okay?"

"Do I have to have it?" Neo asked plaintively.

"I'm afraid so, son." Doctor Gabriel said sympathetically. "It'll only feel like a little pinprick, I promise."

Steve moved forward and gripped Neo's hand. "It'll be okay, I'm right here, no one's going to hurt you while I'm around, I promise." Neo turned and pressed his face against Steve's arm, not wanting to see the needle that Doctor Gabriel was holding. Doctor Gabriel talked him through it and though Neo stiffened and let out a little whine when the needle pierced his skin he showed no other signs of distress.

Thor had had his own blood taken and knew that it was not a pleasant feeling. He reached out and patted Neo's head, offering his comfort as well as the blood was collected for the doctor. In no time at all it was done and Neo was given a Captain America band-aid for his troubles.

"So, what's the verdict, doctor?" Steve asked.

"He's one of the healthiest individuals that I've met, that I've seen so far, though I don't think any tests on his blood or urine will pick anything up either." Doctor Gabriel said with a smile at Neo. Neo smiled back in his shy manner. "You're a good, brave lad, Neo."

"Thank you, doctor." Neo said in reply. "Thank you for not letting the others treat me like a thing."

"Oh, lad, you shouldn't have to thank me for that. I only did what any decent human being should." Doctor Gabriel shook his head. "Well now boys, if you'll excuse me, I have other things to do."

Steve nodded and they headed out of the medical bay. "I was thinking, we shall have to tell Neo of Loki soon." Thor murmured to Steve.

"I know." Steve sighed. "I'd rather not, but… he'll find out eventually and it's best it comes from someone he trusts. I just worry it will hurt him."

"Never fear, Steve, we will be by his side and he will not know doubt with the affection we will shower upon him." Steve chuckled at that.

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	5. Chapter 5

Star: I own nothing!

Steve decided that the entire team should be around to explain to Neo who Loki was and why Neo was connected to him. He brought Neo into the kitchen where the team was gathered and sat him down. They all then took turns explaining the long, complicated story that was Loki and Neo's relationship to him.

When they were done, Neo was quiet, looking down at the table. "So I'm not a real person then? I'm just a copy of someone else?" Before Steve could protest, Natasha cut in.

"Do you feel?" She asked Neo. Neo tilted his head at her and then nodded his head. "Then you are real. You are a person, not an object, not a robot, but a living, breathing person with all the feelings that a person has."

"But if I'm a clone, does that mean I'm the same as him? That I'm bad?" Neo asked plaintively.

"People aren't born bad or good." Tony said. "A lot of what makes people who they are is the way they grow up, their experiences. Loki was shaped the way he was by his life. You, kiddo, haven't had much of a life yet, so you're still being shaped, and kiddo you got heroes as your caretakers, if you become evil I'm going to eat my Iron Man suit."

This made Neo giggle, some of the tension leaving him. "Besides, Loki is not in fact, evil." Thor said in protest of Tony's words.

"He's done bad things." Neo pointed out.

"That doesn't necessarily make a person evil." Clint replied, sounding to Steve's ears a little reluctant to say anything good about the god who had made him into a mindless puppet. "Natasha, before she became a part of SHIELD did a lot of bad things, things some people would consider evil. Do you think Tasha's evil?"

Neo shook his head, looking at Natasha with wide eyes. "Good and evil are very hard to define sometimes." Natasha said. "People always have their reasons for doing things, and often they believe what they do is the right thing, despite the fact that it might hurt people. It is my belief that true evil is only those who harm others for the sake of causing harm, because it amuses them."

"What kind of person likes that?" Neo asked, horrified.

"Sick people." Bruce replied. "Thankfully those kinds of people are very few relatively."

"So, none of you think I'm going to go bad?" Neo asked timidly.

"Neo, if we did, you wouldn't be living with us." Steve said gently, squeezing Neo's shoulder gently. "You've done nothing wrong, and we're not going to hold the fact that physically you are Loki's double against you, that's not your fault."

"Will other people?" Neo asked quietly. Steve and the others looked at each other, wondering how much to say to him.

"If they do, they're not worth your time." Natasha finally said decisively. "people who judge you just because of your looks are idiots."

"I agree with the ever scary Black Widow and move to call out for pizza because I am starving." Tony declared.

"Pizza?" Neo echoed. Tony grinned widely.

"Oh, you're going to love it, everybody loves pizza." Tony asserted. "Hey, we should have a movie night to go with it!"

"Nothing too adult." Steve said sternly. Tony made a face at him.

"More fun to watch Disney or other kid movies anyways." Clint said.

"Exactly." Tony rubbed his hands together. "I was thinking we should watch Lilo and Stitch." Steve caught Clint's snort, Bruce's smile and Natasha's eye-roll. "Hey, you gotta admit it's a good idea."

"Well, it's certainly fitting, and it's a good movie as well. I say we go for it." Bruce decided.

"I've never seen a movie before." Neo declared excitedly, his earlier trepidations forgotten. Twenty minutes later found them all piled on couches and in chairs with several extra large pizzas, garlic bread, chicken bites and cans of soda in front of them. Neo bounced in place in his eagerness as Tony got the movie going.

Neo tried the cheese pizza first, seeing as it was the most simple type of pizza they had. Steve suppressed a chuckle as Neo's eyes went wide in amazement and pleasure and he quickly scarfed down the piece, reaching for another while still chewing.

"Manners, Neo." Steve reminded him.

"Aw, let the kid have his fun." Tony grinned and shoved a can of Coke at Neo. "Try this, careful, it's fizzy."

Neo took the soda and sipped cautiously. "It's bubbly." He giggled, taking a bigger sip. "I like this." He settled back to watch the movie, giggling in amusement as Stitch escaped custody and headed to Earth. During the course of the movie Steve noted that Neo ate five pieces of pizza, three cheese, one pepperoni and one meat lovers, as well as at least fifteen chicken bites and three pieces of garlic bread. Steve would have been worried, but Neo showed no signs of discomfort from eating all that food.

"He is a Jotun, they are like Aesir in that they eat a lot." Thor murmured to Steve. "Basically he can eat as much as I and not feel any form of sickness from it."

"Well, that's good, because I think he's aiming to eat everything in sight." Steve whispered back.

"Aye, I think he is." Thor chuckled, seeing Neo grab another slice of pizza, his eyes riveted to the movie screen. He seemed completely fascinated, and Steve had to admit he could see why. The animation was beautiful and the story was simple and fun. He thought briefly that if he hadn't become Captain America he could have done something like this animation.

"Good movie." Neo said when it was done. "I like Stitch, and I like that he wasn't bad in the end." He grinned. "That's kind of like me, right? I was made for one purpose, but that doesn't mean I have to follow that, right? I can choose my own path."

"Exactly kiddo." Tony said, reaching up to ruffle Neo's hair. Steve snorted; Neo was as tall as Thor was, so Tony looked ridiculous standing on his tiptoes to pet Neo.

"Bedtime." Steve said sternly to Neo. It was getting quite late after all. Neo went without a fuss.

"You know eventually he's going to get into the mulish teenager stage and not want to listen to you, right?" Steve gave Clint a look. "All I'm saying is enjoy the obedience while you can."

Steve was just settling down for the night himself and almost drifting off to sleep when there was a tentative hand tapping his arm. He was alert instantly, sitting up quick, which seemed to startle Neo, because he stumbled back a step.

"Neo! Sorry, instincts. What's up, son?" Steve asked. Neo bit his lip, lowering his head and looking at Steve through his bangs.

"Can't sleep." He mumbled. "It's too dark."

"You don't like the dark?" Steve asked in surprise. Neo shook his head, looking miserable. "You didn't have a problem with your room yesterday."

"I was tired yesterday, really, really tired." Neo explained earnestly. "And I was sure I was dreaming, so I wanted to go to sleep so I could see if I woke up."

"I guess that makes sense." Steve said gently.

"It's stupid." Neo muttered, looking down. "There's nothing in the dark, but I just can't…"

"Fear of the dark is something most human beings suffer from." Steve soothed. "Not sure what we can do about it tonight, we'll figure it out in the morning." Steve paused. "In the meantime, why don't you sleep here, do you think that would help?"

"Maybe…" Neo answered shyly. Steve patted the bed next to him, lifting the sheets up. Neo didn't need any more invitation than that and slipped under the sheets with Steve, snuggling up to him as much as possible.

"I do often have nightmares." Steve warned him. "I might wake you up."

"That's okay." Neo answered, already sounding like he was falling asleep. Steve stroked Neo's hair, remembering his mother used to do the same when he couldn't sleep. He hesitated only a moment when he felt the round, metallic object which was obviously the data port Tony was talking about and continued his soothing motions. Within minutes Neo was snoring lightly.

Steve thoughtfully stared into the dark. He was past the point of no return with Neo now, he knew that. Anyone attempting to take Neo away would have to deal with Captain America and anyone trying to hurt him would get hurt themselves. He was a father now, he realized, it didn't matter that Neo wasn't technically his, but he was now, wasn't he? And Neo obviously felt that he belonged to Steve already, so that was alright. Steve fell asleep with a smile on his face; he never thought he'd actually become a father.

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	6. Chapter 6

Star: I own nothing!

Waking up with a sore back was nothing new to a soldier who had been forced on many occasions to sleep on floors, the ground, or anywhere they could drop. Waking up and getting a kick in the leg from a sleepy Loki-clone was a new one. Neo murmured an apology and seemed about to drop off to sleep again. Steve decided to tickle him instead.

"Ahahahaha! Steve, stop it, that feels strange!" Neo protested, giggling and squirming away so fast he managed to fall off the bed.

"You alright, Neo?" Steve asked in concern. Neo lifted his head and grinned at Steve.

"I'm okay." Neo replied. Steve got up and stretched. "I don't have one of those." Neo commented.

"One of what?" Steve asked. Neo got up and pulled up Steve's shirt, poking at his bellybutton. "That, that's a navel, right?"

"Yes, you don't have one?" Steve queried.

"No, see?" Neo lifted his shirt to reveal that yes, he did not have a belly button. The completely smooth, unblemished abdomen looked just somehow wrong to Steve, though he managed to keep his unease from showing. "How come I don't have one?"

"Well, the navel is actually a scar, from where the umbilical cord which attached us to our mother in the womb was removed." Steve explained.

"I guess that's why I don't have one." Neo said, frowning down at his stomach. "Is it nice having a mother?"

Steve sighed; how to explain having a mother to someone who's never had one? "Having a mother is having someone you can go home to, who's going to kiss your hurts away and loves you no matter what, but who also knows how to discipline you and teach you to be a good, polite member of society."

"Sounds nice." Neo said.

"Go get showered, dressed and get downstairs for breakfast, we'll discuss with the rest of the team your problem with the dark." Steve ordered gently.

"Okay Steve, thanks for letting me stay in your bed." Neo said before scampering out of the room. Steve showered and dressed himself and then headed downstairs. Breakfast wasn't regulated, so everyone just grabbed something as they woke up. Most were early risers, Tony was just a late worker, which meant he was usually still working when the sun came up. Steve made a note to try and change that as he toasted a few pieces of bread and waited for everyone to filter in.

Tony wandered out of the elevator, looking mussed up and sleep-deprived, as usual. Natasha seemed to just appear at the kitchen table, calmly sipping a mug of tea. Clint and Thor came down, loudly arguing about rugby vs. football and Bruce followed behind them, shaking his head. Neo came in last, tripping over himself and shaking out drops of water from his still-damp hair.

"Slow down there, kiddo, before you break something." Tony quipped. No grinned and sat down.

"We discovered something last night about Neo that we'd like your help with." Steve said to the table in general. "Neo, would you like to explain."

Neo lowered his head and muttered quietly. "I don't like the dark."

"Is that all?" Bruce asked kindly. "That's nothing to be worried about, fear of the dark is hardwired into most."

"Easily remediable, too." Clint added. "We just need to get you a nightlight."

"Nightlight?" Neo asked.

"Yeah, you plug it into the wall and it lights up your room." Clint said. "I had one as a kid, maybe we can find you a fun one."

"Or I can just design a super-awesome one, because I'm a genius you know." Tony bragged. "I could probably make something up even before tonight."

"Just don't give it an AI, like you did that coffee maker you 'fixed'." Steve replied. "We don't need Thor having to smash another renegade appliance."

"Aw, you're no fun." Tony griped good-naturedly.

"Can you make it light up like stars?" Neo asked eagerly.

"Kiddo, I can make it sit up and dance a can-can while singing, of course I can make it light up like stars."

"Oh, great, feed his ego a little more." Natasha said, rolling her eyes. Tony was obviously not listening, as he started sketching out schematics on a napkin and muttering to himself. He wandered off, heading back down the elevator.

"Well, we won't see him for the rest of the day." Bruce sighed. "I was hoping to go over some of the gamma radiation techniques we'd been working on, but…" He shrugged.

"Sorry, Bruce." Neo said. Bruce shrugged again.

"It can wait." He replied. "Now I have a little more time to catch up on the reading I've been meaning to do."

"What do you want to do today, Neo?" Steve asked.

"I don't know." Neo said, shrugging his shoulders. "I don't know what I like to do yet."

"Well, I suppose that's the fun part of your life right now, you get to figure it out." Bruce said. "I wish you all the luck. If anyone needs me, I'll be in my room, just knock first."

"Why don't we go down to the gym and play a game of basketball or something?" Steve suggested.

"Basketball?" Neo asked. "That's the game where you shoot the ball through a hoop, right?"

"Yup, that's about the gist of it." Clint agreed. "Hey, me and Thor could come and we could have a game of two on two. I call Thor on my team though."

"Don't complain when he puts you through a wall." Steve quipped.

"I'm going to tag along just to laugh at the carnage." Natasha decided.

"This sounds like it's going to be a lot more messy than what basketball's supposed to be." Neo commented as they piled into the elevator.

It didn't take long to figure out that Neo had nothing in the way of being able to aim. His attempts to hit the basket were usually off by a mile, and the only time he managed to successfully pass a ball to Steve, he hit him in the head.

Still, Neo seemed to be having the time of his life. He was pretty good at dribbling the ball and when he could get his legs to cooperate with him, he could dodge around Thor and Clint with relative ease. Thor and Clint worked pretty well with each other, so long as Clint didn't get too close to Thor when Thor was trying to get the ball.

Natasha sat on the sidelines, smirking at the lot of them, but it was her friendly smirk, not her 'you could run but it wouldn't do you any good' smirk, as Tony had dubbed it. It widened when Neo started giggling uncontrollably over Clint and Thor running right into each other.

The game ended when Thor really did send Clint crashing into the wall, throwing the ball just a little too hard at the archer. Neo had looked on with wide eyes as Clint began cursing Thor out, until Thor brayed out a laugh and clapped Clint on the shoulder, then he smiled again, pleased that everything seemed to be alright.

"I don't think I'm going to be a basketball player." Neo confided to Steve.

"Not with those crazy legs." Clint teased. "You're like a big, uncoordinated puppy, all big feet and clumsy legs."

"Is that a good thing?" Neo asked.

"Puppies are cute, I don't see why it wouldn't be a good thing for you." Clint replied. "Once you learn to control those damned legs of yours, though, you could be killer at basketball, with the way you seem to be able to flit around everybody without them ever touching you."

"You think so?" Neo asked. Clint nodded. "Well, I don't know if I like basketball enough to want to make a career or anything with it."

"And you don't have to make that decision now." Steve assured him. "Most people get about eighteen years to try and pick one thing out these days, and they can still change their minds about it, no matter how old they get."

"Aye, and never let anyone tell you that you cannot do something." Thor added. "My comrade in arms, Lady Sif, she is a warrior, one of the best Asgard has to offer, which is mostly unheard of in Asgard. She never allowed the nay-sayers get to her."

"She sounds interesting." Neo said.

"Ah, speaking of Asgard, you're not going to tell anyone there about Neo, will you?" Steve asked in concern.

"I was not planning to." Thor replied.

"Why?" Neo asked.

"I fear my kinsmen would only hear that you are a copy of Loki and wish to do away with you, to prevent another mischief-maker from running around." Thor explained gently.

"Couldn't you explain?"

"Aye, and some would listen. But others would just believe it to be Loki's trickery and seek to destroy you. That is why I will not tell anyone on Asgard of you." Thor promised. "Someday I will bring my friends to meet you, so they can see for themselves what you are like."

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	7. Chapter 7

Star: I own nothing!

The one thing Tony wasn't expecting when he was working in his workshop was to look up and find Neo standing just outside of the elevator doors, surrounded by Dummy, You and Butterfingers. "What are they?" Neo asked when he saw that he had Tony's attention.

"They're my robot minions." Tony answered. Neo wrinkled his nose at Tony, clearly trying to figure out if that was a joke. "They're supposed to be helper bots, but I gave them artificial intelligence, the ability to learn and now they all give me attitude."

Dummy whirred and tapped his claw against Neo's shirt. "That's Dummy, he seems to like you."

"Dummy, that's kind of a mean name." Neo commented, petting Dummy's struts and making the bot chirp happily.

"I was drunk, strung out and hadn't slept for days when I made him, I was mumbling shit and he latched onto the name. Couldn't get him to answer to anything else after that. He's a problem child, the other two are a little more cooperative, they're You and Butterfingers."

"You're bad at naming things." Neo giggled.

"Hey, hey, I found your name, didn't I?" Tony protested playfully. Neo stepped around the bots, who followed him, delighted to have a new friend.

"Are they alive, like the Iron Giant?" Neo asked. They'd watched The Iron Giant last night, Tony thought it was a good one for Neo to see.

"Sort of." Tony said. "It's complicated, but they have personalities and they have attitudes, so they're a lot like people. So how come you're down here?" Tony asked.

"Am I not allowed?" Neo asked worriedly.

"If you weren't allowed, JARVIS wouldn't have let you in." Tony replied. "So why come down here?"

"Well, Thor's gone to Asgard again, I don't know where Clint and Tasha went, Bruce is down in his lab and he's not supposed to be disturbed down there, and Steve's gone for a run." He looked over the schematics Tony was looking at with curiosity.

"What are you working on?" He asked.

"It's a better propulsion system for the Quinjet." Tony explained. Neo looked at him, a question in his eyes, so he explains how propulsion works, how the Quinjet gets its power now, and what he wants to do with it so that it has more power with less energy burned. He had to slow down and find less complicated ways of explaining things a few times, but Neo picked up on what he was trying to get at pretty quick.

"What're these for?" Neo asked, poking at a few of the magnets that could be made to build little structures. Tony couldn't remember why he'd gotten those out.

"They're magnets, you can build things with them." Tony replied and then went back to his work. A little while later he heard the sound of Dummy chirping happily and looked up. Neo had built a little structure out of the magnets, what looked like a sphere on a triangle base. Neo looked quite pleased with himself, until Dummy swept his arm across the structure, breaking it, and then ran off, chirping gleefully.

"Dummy, you brat." Tony yelled. Neo looked surprised, blinking at the mess and then began to giggle.

"Dummy's silly, isn't he?" Neo said.

"He's a goddamn pain in the ass, that's what he is. Dummy, I'm going to have you dismantled and sold as spare parts, you unsufferable brat!"

"You don't mean that, do you?" Neo asked, sounding worried again.

"Naw." Tony said quietly. "Too much trouble, and besides, he's pretty much a pet, I'd feel like a puppy killer, but don't tell him that."

"Okay Tony." Neo laughed. "You're funny." Tony ruffled his hair; it was hard not to like the kid.

"So, you hungry?" Tony asked. "I've been down here for god knows how long, could go for a snack, how about it?"

"What about the magnets?" Neo asked.

"Well, Dummy made the mess, he should clean it up." Dummy made an annoyed whirring noise at Tony. "Hey, don't be a brat, I'll have you stuck to your charging station for a week." Dummy moved slowly over to the work table, stubborn as ever. "You, Butterfingers, no helping him, alright?" The other two bots clicked at him and went over to their charging stations. "So, you seemed to be enjoying playing with those magnets."

"Yeah, it's fun building things. I think I could build a lot of different things out of those magnets too." Neo said happily.

"I should see if we've got any Legos or K-nex around, and if we don't get some." Tony grinned at Neo. "You're a smart kid, I wouldn't be surprised if you scored in the genius category on an IQ test."

"That's good, right?" Tony nodded and Neo smiled down at him. It was a bit disconcerting to have to crane his neck to look up at Neo, because he thought of him as a kid, but he had the body of an adult, even if he didn't know what to do with it most of the time.

When they stepped out of the elevator Neo stopped and stiffened, head cocked to one side, and eyes wide. It took Tony a moment to realize what was wrong; it was raining. Neo had never seen rain, never heard it, never felt it on his skin. He put a hand on Neo's shoulder and Neo turned to look at him, eyes filled with childish wonder.

"This is rain?" He asked.

"Yup." Tony replied. "Come on, let's go dance in it." Neo looked unsure, but Tony just swaggered over to the door leading to their balcony and went outside, getting immediately drenched and chilled by the heavy deluge. He bounced up and down, waving at Neo inside and opened his mouth to swallow some of the rain.

His antics apparently tempted Neo too much because Neo poked his head out, and then slowly completely stepped into the rain. He stared up at the dark sky, blinking rapidly as raindrops fell on his upturned face. After a long moment he smiled and lifted his hands up, opening his mouth to catch the rain. Tony grinned at him and spun around, arms out. Neo copied him and soon the two of them were dancing crazily in the rain, shrieking like little kids.

"Neo Fury get back in here before you catch a cold!" Steve yelled, making them stagger and smack into each other, still giggling. "You too Tony, Pepper's told me horror stories about you when you're sick."

"Oh great, my CEO's talking smack about me." Tony grumbled good-naturedly. "Come on, Neo, otherwise he might try to ground us both."

Steve was waiting with a towel when they got inside and immediately started rubbing it through Neo's hair, lecturing him about going out in the cold and rain without protection. "But Steve, I didn't even feel cold." Neo protested, taking his soaked clothes off and putting on dry ones.

"That's probably because you're a Frost Giant, so you don't feel cold, lucky you." Tony said, pulling off his own clothes. "Steve, you didn't bring me any clothes?" He teased. Steve gave him the 'dad' look and Tony grinned. "Alright, alright, I'll get my own."

By the time he got back to the kitchen Steve was making hot chocolate. Tony stole the mug that Steve was holding out to Neo and winked at Steve when he gave him a disapproving stare. Neo just stuck his tongue out at Tony and accepted another mug from Steve.

"I like the rain." Neo commented between careful sips of his drink.

"Wait till you see a proper thunderstorm." Tony commented. "Oh, how's that nightlight of yours working out?"

"It's good." Neo replied. Tony had made good on his idea to make the nightlight project stars, but instead of the little kiddie version of stars he actually made a nightlight that could be placed on a nightstand and would project images of actual star patterns from the night sky out into the room, rotating slowly. Steve was sketching of course, something he did almost constantly. Tony could see that it was a drawing of Neo, playing in the rain.

"You know there's these great things called cameras." Tony joked. Steve looked up at him sharply, his face softening when he saw the humour in Tony's eyes.

"I like to draw, helps me remember things a little more clearly." Steve explained. "Photos don't have the same…. Same heart to them, the same feeling of life."

"That is utterly poetic and dangerously sappy." Tony declared. "I like it." Neo looked between the two of them, looking bewildered by the exchanged, but didn't say anything, probably thinking that people were weird. Or maybe, since they were the only people he'd ever really known, maybe he thought this was all normal. Tony almost laughed at the thought; what kind of person would a kid of the Avengers pump out? Well, he supposed they would find out eventually.

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	8. Chapter 8

Star: I own nothing!

"I think we need a field trip." Steve looked up from his paper and blinked at Tony. "You know, for Neo. I mean he's never done all the stuff we did as kids, like go to the zoo, ride a roller coaster, go out to the movies. He needs to experience all that."

"And you want to take him to those places?" Natasha guessed. Neo was looking around the table, equal parts eager and curious.

"Well yeah, we're his family, we need family outings."

"This is the weirdest fucking family, and seeing as I was pretty much raised in a circus, that's saying a lot." Clint commented.

"Language, please." Steve reprimanded. "I think it's a good idea, though we should try to keep it low profile if we're all going to go out."

"It is a marvelous idea." Thor agreed.

"Could go to Central Park zoo." Bruce suggested. "It's close enough that if we get called out it won't take long to suit up."

"What do you think Fury will say?" Steve asked.

"He'd say take Coulson with you." Coulson said, nearly startling Tony out of his seat.

"Jesus Coulson, you move like a fucking ghost!" He said, dramatically clutching at his chest.

"Stop being a child, Stark." Coulson said with a smile. "I can let Fury know and we can get out of here. I believe they have baby lions right now at the zoo."

"Ooh, babies! They'll probably even let us touch them because we're famous people." Tony grinned.

"We can touch baby lions?" Neo asked, big green eyes wide.

"Maybe, if we're good." Bruce said. "So what, think we should take a picnic lunch."

"Aw hell no, the fun of outings like this is getting to eat all the crap that's bad for you." Clint said with a grin. "Corndogs, cotton candy, hamburgers."

"Let's go, can we go, please?" Neo begged excitedly. And that was how the Avengers wound up deciding to go to the Central Park Zoo.

%&%&%&%

"So, why are you here, again?" Tony asked Coulson.

"I'm making sure you all behave yourselves, and no it's not just you, Stark, Barton has his wild streak as well." Coulson said calmly. Clint looked back and grinned at Coulson and then whispered something to Natasha. She shoved him away, but Steve could see the little smile on her face.

Neo was holding his hand, looking around at everything, even though they were only just inside the gates. "Whoa, look at that!" He suddenly cried, tugging Steve off. Steve was reminded then how not human Neo really was because Neo almost dragged him right off his feet with ease. Neo ran over to the elephant exhibit and stared at the large animals in awe.

"Well, what do you think, kiddo?" Tony asked, clapping Neo on the shoulder.

"They're so big!" Neo gasped. "I had a sort of picture in my head of them, but seeing them for real…" He shook his head, unable to form words. "They really exist. If all I had was pictures in my head they might not be real, but I can see them and hear them and they really are real."

"Yup, and their shit's real too, trust me, I've had to clean it up." Clint said drily, making Neo laugh. "Come on, kiddo, we got lots of stuff to see before we leave."

Neo decided he hated spiders after seeing a tarantula, thought snakes were cool, and that alligators had way too many teeth. He barely stopped, darting from exhibit to exhibit, talking a mile a minute at each one before taking off again. He finally stopped under the polar bear exhibit, where they were able to watch them swim underwater. He stared at the big white bears, awestruck.

"Look at them swim, they're so graceful, and big." He said. "They could probably eat me, couldn't they?"

"Could and would, if they had a mind to." Bruce replied.

"How come humans think they're on top of the food chain then?" Neo asked. Bruce laughed and patted him on the back.

"Because humans think they're the center of the universe, that's why." He explained. "People are kind of silly that way."

%&%&%&%

Natasha watched Neo for a couple minutes silently, though she didn't think he'd notice her even if she made some noise. He was building something with the Legos that Stark had found for him and was totally focused on his task. She watched him for a moment more and then padded over quietly and sat down.

Neo looked up at her, unsurprised by her quiet approach after a few weeks of living with them. "So, what are you building today?" She asked.

"Hogwarts." Neo answered. Natasha nodded her head; she could see the towers taking shape now that she knew what she was looking at.

"You really like Harry Potter, don't you?" She idly picked up a random Lego and placed it on one of the towers, to see what he would do. Without looking he took the piece off and stuck it on another section.

"Yeah, they're good books." Neo was quiet for a moment. "They make me think."

"About what?" Natasha prompted.

"Good and evil." Neo answered. Natasha waited, Neo was pretty chatty about most things, if you gave him time. "It's just… You read the sixth book and you kind of feel a little bit of sympathy for Voldemort, and then you find out Dumbledore had similar ideas about muggles before."

"I tend to avoid the concept of 'evil', because it's really hard to define." Natasha said. "Tell me, do you think I'm a good person?"

"Yeah…" Neo said, sounding puzzled.

"I used to be an assassin, do you know what that is?"

"Yeah, isn't that what they wanted me to be?" Neo asked.

"Yes, so in the past I've killed people, simply because that's what I was ordered to do, that was my job. I didn't care if they had kids, if they were good or bad, I just did it." Natasha paused, searching Neo's face. "Those sort of things could be considered evil, but do you think I'm an evil person?" Neo shook his head. "Why not?"

"Because you're a superhero now, you fight to protect people, and you're nice." Neo explained. "I mean you glare and threaten people, but you don't really mean it, it's like your way of showing that you actually care about them, because you do it more after they've done something dangerous, most of the time it's either Clint or Tony that gets this. I think Clint understands it, Tony just thinks you're scary."

"And we're going to keep it that way because Stark needs to be kept on his toes." Natasha smiled. "You're very observant."

"I learn that from you. You watch people, figure them out, so I try to as well. Makes it easier to figure out how to blend in, not look odd." Neo explained. "So, what you're saying is that good people can do bad things, but it doesn't make them bad, right?"

"Exactly."

"Thor talks about Loki sometimes, about the way he was…." Neo paused, biting his lip. "maybe he's one of those people who's done bad things, but isn't necessarily bad?"

"Maybe, but we can't take that chance, not right now." Natasha said.

"It just makes me sad when Thor's sad, and he gets sad after he visits his brother." Neo said. "You think Loki could still be the brother that Thor loves and misses so much?"

"He always will be, even if he doesn't act like it. But what you're asking is whether Loki could act good again, well, who knows." Neo leaned his head against Natasha's head.

"Life is very complicated, isn't it?"

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Star: Review plz!


	9. Chapter 9

Star: I own nothing!

Frigga glanced back at Loki, at her son, for what felt like the thousandth time since Odin's proclamation on what his punishment would be. Loki steadfastly didn't meet her eyes, jaw set in a hard line. He was flanked by the Warriors Three and Sif, his arms shackled behind him and his magic drained from him, Frigga wasn't certain why they felt the need to guard him.

She looked to her husband. Odin met her eyes for a moment, looking older and more tired than she'd seen him ever before. She placed a soft hand on his arm, the only comfort he would allow in public. Neither of them were happy with what had been decided, but it was better than the alternatives.

Heimdall nodded at them when they drew close and silently opened the Bifrost for them, allowing them to travel down to Midgard. They landed on the top of what Frigga knew was the Avengers Tower. Her breath still caught at their height above the city, and the evidence of so many mortals living in one place, their buildings stretching up to the sky. She could see buildings with scars in them, the lasting legacy of Loki's failed attempt to take this realm.

Odin led the way inside, where they found no one but a tall, black-haired youth with his back to them, working with a series of colourful, tiny bricks, making a large, eccentric building out of them. There was music playing, and someone singing about 'hakuna matata', whatever that might be.

"You there. Where are the Avengers, the defenders of Midgard?" Odin demanded.

"They had to go out, something about giant sushi, which sounds like it's going to be very messy." The figure said without turning. There was something familiar about his voice, but Frigga could not place it. When the youth turned to look at them she let out a gasp as familiar green eyes found hers.

"Trickster!" Hogun growled, and attacked the youth, who was an exact replica of Loki, smashing the building being made to bits. He was slammed up against the wall, Hogun's hand around his throat, struggling, but not fighting back with magic or trickery. Something was wrong, and Frigga made to call Hogun away, when the glass windows were shattered behind them and a massive green blur pounded into the room and batted Hogun away from the youth with ease.

The Hulk banged his fists on the floor, standing in front of the youth and roared a challenge at all of them. He was clearly trying to protect the boy, who stared for a moment, wide-eyed at all of them. The Hulk moved forward, growling, and the youth moved too.

"No, no, no, it's okay, I'm okay, see?" It was Loki's voice, and not. It was far more youthful, the tone of it kind and childish. The youth stood in front of the Hulk, preventing him from attacking anyone. "I'm not hurt, okay?"

The Hulk growled and grabbed the youth, making him yip in surprise as he was picked up, and carried over to the couch and the large flat device that Frigga was certain was a television. The Hulk sat down heavily, making the floor shake a little, still holding the boy.

"Oookkayyy…" She heard the youth say, sounding bemused.

"Neo!" A tall, muscular blonde in a blue and white outfit ran in and skidded to a halt in front of the Hulk and his captive. "Are you alright?"

"I'm fine, Steve." The youth, Neo, insisted.

"Well, other than the big guy deciding to play 'I will love him and pet him and call him George'." Another man, shorter, with dark hair and a beard said calmly as he came inside. They had to be Steve Rogers and Tony Stark, if Frigga was remembering Thor's descriptions right.

"I think I'm in time out." Neo informed them calmly. Tony Stark started laughing his head off, while Steve Rogers, also known as Captain America, carefully looked over Neo's face, searching for signs of injury. "Really, Steve, I'm okay. Hulk came in before I could get hurt."

"Well, thank god for that, we don't have to hit anyone." A short man with short brown hair, a scowl on his face and a bow marched in the room, accompanied by a red-haired woman all in black. They must have been Clint Barton, Hawkeye, and Natasha Romanoff, the Black Widow. They were deceptively ordinary looking, which must come in handy in their line of work.

Thor came last, flying to the balcony and walking inside. Frigga noticed that he first looked for the boy before turning his attention back and greeting them all with a great big smile. "My friends, my family!" He boomed. "I did not know you were coming."

"The council has reached a decision." Her husband explained. Thor's grin faltered and faded. "What is that?" Odin asked, nodding towards Neo. Frigga saw her son stiffen and his eyes grow clouded with anger.

"_He_ is Neo." Thor rumbled shortly. "He is our ward and not to be harmed, by anyone."

"He is Loki." Sif said. "Or one of Loki's tricks."

"No." The new voice came from a dark-skinned man with an eyepatch and a no-nonsense aura about him. Frigga guessed he was Director Nick Fury of SHIELD. "I would have preferred to have been warned about your approach, but I suppose that's a bit moot now. We can go somewhere private to talk."

"Your Avengers need to come with us, what I have to say involves them." Odin ordered. Director Fury stared at Odin for a long, uncomfortable moment.

"Can you all spare a moment?" Fury asked the Avengers lightly. He was subtly telling Odin that he was not the king in this realm, and that they didn't have to listen to him if they didn't want to.

"Well it's this or go try to prevent Dummy from poisoning me with another out-of-date smoothie." Tony Stark sighed. The Hulk just growled and hugged Neo tighter, making the boy squeak in discomfort. "We'll just let the big guy babysit the kid while we're gone."

They were led down to another level of the building and shown into a room with a large table and chairs in it. Loki was made to wait outside the room, guarded by two SHIELD agents. "Thor, why do you defend that boy? He is obviously a trick of Loki's." Sif blurted out before Odin could speak.

"Actually he's not, he was made by humans, not by us, that would just be weird." Tony Stark said. "See, science has a way of making perfectly physically identical copies of people just from a sample of skin, blood or hair. A bunch of people decided that because Loki was so powerful, a clone could be used to be an assassin, a soldier for hire. Unfortunately for them, he has too much free will and we got to them before they could make another."

"But he is a copy of Loki, that makes him Loki." Fandral insisted.

"Not at all." Natasha Romanoff said quietly. "What you have is basically a twin, and twins are hardly the same person. Loki is who he is because of the way he's lived his life, his experiences, his memories, they all shape him. Neo doesn't have that. He's got two months worth of memories, almost all of them with us. He's not Loki and he never will be."

"Two months?" Frigga repeated in disbelief.

"Yeah, that's how long ago he was made, they can grow them up pretty quick." Tony Stark said. "So he's basically a baby and we're trying to raise him to be a good little alien-god-frost-thing." Clint Barton snorted at the description.

"Son, why have we not been told of Neo?" Frigga asked Thor gently. Thor shifted uncomfortably.

"I was concerned that the truth of Neo's origins would be misunderstood, and I have no wish to see Neo hurt." Thor explained. "It was not my decision alone, we all felt it was best if less people knew about Neo. He is only a child after all."

"On to more pressing matters." Fury interrupted. "Why have you come here?"

"Loki's punishment has been decided." Odin said. "It was decided that Loki would be bound to mortal form and made to live on Midgard, with the ones that defeated him." There was a moment of silence as the Avengers absorbed that piece of information.

"He can't… no we can't have him here. We've got a kid god-damn it and I don't want him exposed to that madman." Steve Rogers growled, smashing his fist into the table.

"Gotta agree with Cap, I just stopped having nightmares about that guy." Clint Barton added.

"The other option was to subject him to excruciating torture for the rest of his natural life." Frigga said quietly. The Avengers looked at her and she stared back at them, beseeching them. "He's still my son. In any case torture would only serve to heighten his resentment and make him long for more destruction."

"She has a point." Natasha Romanoff admitted. "And you said he was mortal, yes?" Frigga nodded.

"He's still got his lies." Steve Rogers reminded them.

"And we have the power over him to send him back if he gets Neo too upset. He doesn't know whether we would use that power or not, so we still have the upper hand." Natasha argued. "Why don't we get him down here, see what he thinks about all this?"

"Seeing as he is a permanent resident of the Tower, I think that would be wise." Tony agreed. "JARVIS?"

"**I have already informed young master Fury and he and Dr. Banner are on their way." **Frigga flinched slightly at the disembodied voice, but she knew from Thor's tales that it was a computer, an artificially made machine that could think and reason on its own. Midgard had very many strange things. Moments later the door opened to admit Neo, and a stocky curly-haired man in glasses who mumbled a 'sorry' at Hogun. Steve explained what was going on to Neo.

"We want to know how you'd feel about having Loki in the Tower, would you feel safe?" Steve asked. Neo bit his lip, considering the question. Frigga stared at him, unable to look away. He was Loki, and yet not. The face was the same, though the sharp cheekbones were softened by a layer of fat that Loki no longer had. His ravens-wing hair was shorter and messy and his gait that she had seen was clumsier than Loki's graceful lope. The green eyes were honest, filled with an innocence and optimism that she'd not seen in Loki's eyes for a long time.

"You wouldn't let him do anything to hurt me, right?" Neo finally asked of Steve Rogers.

"None of us would, and if you ever felt like he was making you feel unsafe or unhappy, we'll listen." Steve Rogers told him gently.

"Okay, I say he can stay then." Neo said decisively. Frigga let out a breath she hadn't known she was holding. The rest of the Avengers agreed after that, letting her know their chief concern had been their charge's welfare.

"We'll sic Tasha on him if he bugs you." She heard Clint Barton murmur to Neo, who giggled in reply, a sweet, childish sound. She, her husband and Thor's most trusted friends stand to leave. Sif and the Warriors Three clasp hands with Thor and say their goodbyes, saying they will visit.

When they emerged from the room Frigga went straight to Loki. Loki still would not look at her. "Whatever you may believe, I still love you, and you are still my son." Frigga murmured, cupping his cheek gently. Loki closed his eyes as she kissed his forehead, swallowing noticeably but saying nothing. "Goodbye for now, my son, I will come to see you."


	10. Chapter 10

Star: I own nothing!

Steve didn't like it; he didn't like the thought of having to introduce Neo to Loki. They had to, had to get it clear that Neo was off limits to Loki, that they would not tolerate him trying to upset Neo. They made it up to the living quarters, removing Loki's shackles on the way, before Loki turned on him.

"So what is this then? A pet? A whipping boy to vent your rage on?" Loki demanded, turning a vicious smile on Neo. Neo's face contorted, obviously warring between confusion and fear.

"My name is Neo." Neo's voice trembled a little bit. Loki's smile became more predatory.

"A pet then." He said dismissively. "Do they give you treats for good behaviour, little mouse?"

Steve was about to jump in when he saw Neo's jaw tighten, a look of defiance in his normally gentle green eyes. "No." He said simply.

"No?" Loki repeated mockingly.

"I know what you're doing, and you're wrong. I'm not a pet, I'm not a thing. I'm Neo Fury, I'm the kid of the Avengers. They love me, they care about me, and nothing you say can change that." Neo said, his voice sure and strong. "You're just a bully, and I don't have to listen to you."

"Atta boy, Neo, you tell him." Tony grinned and grabbed Neo away. "Come on, I got something cool to show you I been working on for you."

"What?" Neo asked, happily wandering after Tony.

"Now if I told you that it wouldn't be a surprise, would it?" Tony retorted. When they were gone Steve turned to Loki and folded his arms.

"What's the matter? Don't like me messing with your little toy?" Loki taunted.

"You're skating on thin ice, already Loki." Steve said, keeping his voice pleasant. "Now, we know you're a megalomaniac and psychotic, but tormenting a child seems a little out of character, even to you."

"That thing is not a child." Loki scoffed.

"He's two months old." Steve informed him coolly. "That was when he was created. The only reason he hasn't the mental capacity of an infant is because they found a way to directly put information into his brain so he didn't have to learn new things. He's a boy, a little kid trapped in an adult's body and we are raising him. And if we think that you are going to do anything to hurt him, you'll be gone."

"You do not have that kind of malice in you." Loki scoffed.

"You'd be surprised what we are capable of when our kid's being threatened." Clint replied evenly.

"Your kid." Loki jeered. "He's nothing but a copy, a pale imitation of the real thing."

"So what if he is, we like him better than we like you and we're saying right now, stay away from him." Clint said. "Maybe we won't send you back, maybe we'll just let Tasha have some fun with you. Last people she played with still haven't gotten out of the crazy-house."

"As if a mere woman could-"

"May I remind you that I'm the one who bested your little plan?" Natasha interrupted in a bored tone, inspecting her nails. "Now that was thinking on the fly, give me time and resources and that's a whole new level of mental warfare." She gave Loki the disturbing smile she gave Tony whenever she felt he was being an ass. "You mess with our kid, we mess with you, get it?"

Loki made a rude noise, but nodded his head all the same. "I will show you your room, brother." Thor said quietly, touching Loki's arm. Loki jerked his arm away, practically hissing at Thor. Thor relented, though his expression was like a puppy that had been kicked and settled for going off down the hall, Loki following behind him.

"This is a huge mistake." Clint growled.

"We'll see."

%&%&%&%

"So, what do you think of our new guest?" Tony asked as they rode the elevator down to his lab. Neo looked at him and then made a circling motion with his finger right beside his ear. Tony laughed. "Yup, I think he's crazy too."

"It's not just that though, when he was looking at me, he looked angry, and jealous. I think he feels like he's being replaced." Neo explained. "Especially by Thor."

"Makes sense." Tony agreed. "Doesn't excuse him for being an asshole though."

"Nope. But I know that he's just trying to be mean, so I'm not going to listen to a thing he says." Neo smiled down at Tony. "I know you guys love me."

"And how do you know that?" Tony teased.

"Because you let me come down in your workshop and talk to you, even when you're working, because Clint keeps trying to get me to play target practice with him, because Steve makes me eat all my vegetables and tells me not to swear, because Thor looks at me and I know he doesn't see Loki, because Bruce and the Hulk both want to protect me, and because Tasha lets me call her Tasha."

Tony smiled, proud of the kid for having figured out what love is all on his own. "Well, sounds like you've got everything figured out, don't you?" Neo leaned down to let him ruffle his hair. They walked out into the workshop. Dummy immediately whizzed up to Neo, holding a squeaky ball in his claw. Neo giggled and threw the ball for Dummy, who charged after it, chirping happy. "Still can't believe that brat Barton taught them to play fetch."

"They're really like dogs… is that the right analogy?" Neo asked, tilting his head at Tony.

"Yup, that's the right one, big, stupid, overly friendly." Tony agreed. "Loki's got us all wrong, we already got pets, we just needed a kid to complete this crazy parody of a family."

"I don't know about you guys, but we are the weirdest herd I've ever seen." Neo quoted, grinning at Tony.

"Yup. Only we would have a few dysfunctional robots as pets and a clone as our collective kid. So if Steve is dad, who's mom?" Tony asked.

"I'd say Tasha, but she'd probably hurt me." Neo said. "Maybe the Hulk?"

"Oh what, because of the cuddling session today?" Neo nodded. "I'm having images of the Hulk in a frilly apron, that's going to send me to therapy." Neo laughed at him and headed to Tony's workbench. He poked around at the gutted device still sitting there from earlier.

"What's this?"

"It's a Roomba." Tony replied. "I'm tired of people complaining about cleaning up messes on the floor, so I bought some Roombas, which are like robot vacuum cleaners, but they're not that smart and they bump into things all the time, so I'm going to make them smarter and we'll have some more pets that actually clean up after us."

"I'm starting to understand why some people think you're going to turn into a super-villain one day." Neo quipped. He was getting good at that, though a couple months of living with Tony Stark, master of Snark, would do that.

"And who's been saying that?" Tony asked.

"Apparently SHIELD has a contingency plan in case it happens, Phil told me." Neo explained.

"Course they do, assholes." Tony muttered. "Anyways, on to your present."

Neo bounced in place as Tony took out what he'd been working on since discovering Neo had a talent for building. It looked like a regular tablet and Neo looked at it, and then Tony, waiting for Tony to explain what was so special about it. Tony had to grin, the kid had him figured out already.

"This tablet has a specialized program that would be great for an architect." Tony said, pressing the start button and calling up the program. He tapped the screen twice and a 3D holographic image sprang up. "See it's kind of like those games like the Sims, or Roller Coaster Tycoon, except you're putting buildings together and seeing if they'll hold up. There's more stuff on the tablet, games and internet and music, but this was the most important thing I thought."

"Tony, this is so cool." Neo said, awestruck. He poked at the hologram, calling up a list of options to play around with. "I could build, like, anything with this!"

"And it will accurately tell you if it will work or not. You get to deal with everything, the foundations, the walls, the support system, plumbing, electrical. If something doesn't work the program will tell you. I'm thinking I can market this towards universities first, but you get to play with the trial run."

Neo grabbed him and hugged him, which was almost as bad as Thor hugging him because Neo didn't completely get how strong he really was. "Tony, you're awesome."

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	11. Chapter 11

Star: I own nothing

It was three in the morning, and Tasha wasn't sleeping. Not that that was unusual at all in the Avengers Tower. There was almost always someone awake; in fact Stark was probably awake now, just down in his workshop. No one else was in the living room though, crowding the couch, watching whatever they could stick in the fastest to make the nightmares go away, and so Tasha decided to indulge in her softer side.

As she was putting in her movie she heard someone pad down the hallway towards her. She immediately picked up on the still awkward gait, the slap of bare feet against marble and the lack of any kind of attempt to quiet their steps, and knew exactly who it was.

"Shouldn't you be sleeping?" She asked, turning around and looking at Neo.

"I was a little awake, and I heard someone else get up, so I came to see." Neo explained, scratching at his messy hair. Tasha figured it wouldn't be too long before someone else besides her made the connection and started calling him Harry Potter. "What are you watching?"

"It might not be something you'd enjoy, it's typically for girls." Natasha said. Neo cocked his head at her, green eyes alight with interest. "It's called A Little Princess."

"What's it about?"

"A little girl who believes in magic and princesses, and has her whole world taken away from her." Natasha replied.

"Can I watch it with you?" Neo asked.

"Of course." Because it was Neo, and he was one of the few she trusted, and allowed herself to love. He settled down next to her, and she leaned into him. She did this for so few, so rarely, because it meant showing vulnerability, her vulnerability, and that she trusted to few. The only ones she entrusted it to were all in this Tower with her in fact and she spared a moment to wonder at that before turning her attention to the movie.

Neo was attentive, but silent, and for that she was glad. If it had even any of the others watching, except maybe Steve, there would have been comments and commentary, but Neo seemed to get that there was no talking here. Tasha let her lips curl up in a faint smile; she would have to tell Clint that Neo was replacing him as her favourite, just to see him sputter and sulk.

It was rare that Tasha let herself cry, and watching A Little Princess was one of those times. Ne settled an arm around her shoulders and squeezed her tight, a sharp inhale telling her he was just as affected. He had not been ingrained with the idea that boys don't cry, and she was glad of it. They were going to teach him that boys and girls can do whatever the hell they wanted.

"I liked that." Neo said quietly as the credits rolled. Tasha looked up at him, seeing earnest honesty in his face. Steve got a similar look on his face sometimes, and it made Neo look a little like him, which she thought was just fine.

"I'm glad." She said genuinely. "It's one of my favourite movies."

"I think the others would be a little surprised by that." Neo commented. "Princesses don't immediately come to mind when you do."

"Are you surprised?" Neo shrugged his shoulders.

"It's like what Shrek says, people have layers." He replied. "I've seen little moments, of softness in you, I mean, so it's not too big a surprise I guess."

"You have a very observant eye." Natasha said. "Though that hardly surprises me." She thought for a moment and then decided to hell with it. "I like this movie because it reminds me that even in the darkest of moments, there is hope. It also reminds me that all girls are princesses, and that's gotten me through a lot of moments where I've felt like much less."

"You didn't have a nice life before, did you?" Neo asked, resting his cheek on the top of her head.

"Not in the slightest, but it's made me who I am today, and I happen to like that person, for all my flaws." Natasha smiled again.

"Flaws aren't all bad, they remind you that you are alive." Neo said.

"Wise kid." Natasha commented wryly.

"I've got hundreds of books stuffed in my head, it makes me philosophical sometimes." Neo replied with that little amount of snark that echoed of Stark.

"This and Anastasia are my go-to movies for when I'm feeling a little closed in." Tasha told him. "Anastasia because it reminds me of home, and because Anastasia just kicks ass all by herself."

Neo, having seen Anastasia as part of the 'needs to have a proper childhood experience so watch all the kids' movies' plan that Stark had come up with, nodded and giggled.

"You should go to back to bed, you know how Steve gets when he thinks you're not being healthy." Natasha said.

"Okay." She had to wonder when and if they'd ever get to the rebellious stage with this one. Neo stood up, and then leaned down to hug her. And because it was Neo, she didn't even stiffen up. "Thank you for sharing this with me." He said, proving once again that Neo understood them better than they sometimes thought.

"No problem, kid." She replied, returning the hug. He wandered off back to his bedroom and Natasha turned off the TV. The nightmare that had prompted her to get up had faded from her mind, and it was time for her to sleep as well.

%&%&%&%

Steve wandered into the kitchen at seven in the morning and nearly had his feet assaulted by what looked like a rather large silver hockey puck. It made a whirring noise at him and then said "CAPSICLE!" Its voice was tinny and rather childish. At its cry several more whizzed out of nowhere, each crying out in the same manner.

Steve gave Tony, who was giggling madly at the table, a dirty look. "New friends of yours?" He asked the grinning genius.

"What makes you think that?" Tony's grin grew wider as Steve tried to step over the crowding robots. "They should move out of the way for you."

"Should?" Steve repeated sternly.

"Tested in the lab they seemed to do it, not sure if with more people around they'll get confused."

"What are they?" Steve asked, sitting down.

"Roombas, robot vacuum cleaners, I made them better." Tony explained. "Got a simple AI in them, not as complicated as JARVIS or even Dummy." He dropped a pinch of sugar on the floor and the Roombas zoomed in to clean it up.

"Oh, cool, we got robot vacuums in the house." Clint commented, wandering in.

"HAWKASS!" The Roombas chorused, crowding happily around him. Clint blinked a couple times and then threw his head back and laughed.

"Okay, I like these little buckets of bolts, we can keep them."

"Wasn't asking your opinion on the matter." Tony said with a grin.

"Hey, you finished the roombas!" Neo said delightedly as he practically skipped into the kitchen.

"Neeeeoooooo!" The roombas greeted. Neo giggled and dodged around them.

"Can I name them, pllleeeeaaaasseee?" Neo begged, giving Tony the 'puppy dog' eyes.

"Of course you can name them, just not something stupid like the dwarves from Snow White please?" Tony replied, shoving a roomba that had run into his foot away, making it skid across the floor going 'wheeeee'!

Soon the floor was filled with roombas sliding around going 'wheee'. Loki chose that moment to walk in and he dodged the roombas, looking nervous. "Easy, reindeer games, they don't bite." Tony laughed at the god's annoyed face. "Well, maybe they do, still in testing you know."

Neo caught one of the roombas as it bumped into his foot. "Nnnneeeooooo!" It cried, sounding happy.

"I'm going to name you Wall-e." He declared happily. Loki scowled at the boy.

"Got something to say, princess?" Tony asked idly. Loki sneered at him, stole an apple off the table and stalked back to his room. "Didn't think so."

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	12. Chapter 12

Star: I own nothing!

Loki stared out the window of his room, seething with rage. It was bad enough that he'd been condemned to this pathetic, insect-covered blip of a world, to be 'watched over' by the very people who had somehow defeated him in the first place. If that wasn't humiliating enough, he found that they'd gotten a new pet in the form of a duplicate of himself.

"Neo…" He growled to himself; a foolish name for an even more foolish watered-down copy. He was like a puppy, content to grin foolishly and allow others to fawn over him. It was insulting, to have that thing wandering around, clearly under the control of the Avengers and too stupid to see it was just being used. He smiled thinly to himself. How much would it take to break his little copy?

It had been a couple days since his last encounter with the clone; he would probably be thinking he was safe. He padded silently out of his room, where he'd been holing himself for the last couple days, despising the fact that he could do nothing about his predicament, and headed to where he could hear the television on.

The clone was sitting down on the ground in front of the television, working with a series of blocks on the low coffee table in front of the couch. Loki sat down on the couch and very deliberately dropped his feet onto the coffee table, jarring it and knocking the structure his little clone was working on over.

The clone turned and gave him a dirty look and began to clean up the mess, pointedly ignoring him. He was stacking the blocks again, in threes, one layer one way and the one on the top laid down on a ninety degree angle from the one below. Loki jiggled the table again, but the clone had learned and placed his hand on top of the structure, steadying it.

Loki found himself watching the clone's precise, methodical movements with something like curiosity. The clone took a box from beside him and lowered it over the completed stack and then quickly flipped it over and closed the box in one deft movement. He then sat back, leaning against the couch, to watch the ridiculous show that had just come on, something about a 'magic school bus'.

"What is this nonsense?" Loki demanded, an appropriate amount of distain in his voice.

"It's Magic School Bus, it's a kid's show." Neo explained shortly.

"Appropriate then, for your intelligence level." That comment got a glare from the clone.

"Even Tony watches Magic School Bus." He pointed out with a huff. "And Tony's a genius. Just because it's for kids, doesn't mean it's not good for adults too." Neo settled back again and watched the screen. One of the roombas sidled up to him and he absently patted it and gave it a hard push, sending it flying across the floor, crying 'wwwhhheeeeeee'!

Soon the rest of the roombas were queuing up to have their turn at being sent scooting across the floor, all yelling 'wheeeee' as they went. The clone giggled and Loki realized he was losing the chance to mess with him again.

"How cute, pets for a pet." He said smoothly, smirking when Neo gave him another dirty look. "They seem to have a habit of having manufactured pets here, don't they?"

"And what if I am a pet?" Neo suddenly demanded, surprising Loki. "And I know I'm not, but even if I was, it's a lot better than what I was going to be where I was made."

"And what was that?" Loki asked, curious despite himself.

"I was supposed to be a mindless killing machine, an assassin they'd set on anyone they chose, but apparently I was too… too alive." One of the roombas settled against the clone and he absently stroked its top while it hummed in an imitation of a purr. "They decided to try again, do something to tamp down free will in the next one but chose to keep me for experimentation. They were going to try out a version of the super soldier serum on me when I was rescued. Bruce said the mixture probably would have killed me."

"Why would they use a super soldier serum on you?" Loki wondered, baffled. "You are stronger than all mortals already."

"They wanted to make me even stronger I guess." Neo shrugged. "Doesn't matter anymore. Steve found me, he got me out."

"And you of course believe his heroics to be love for you." Loki said condescendingly.

"Noooo…" The clone replied, drawing out the word and sounding as though he thought Loki was completely missing the point. "I know that was heroics, I know that. I can't really explain in words why I know he loves me, why they all love me." Neo pulled at his short hair, touching the back of his head right where it met his neck lightly.

"If you can't say it then it is not true." Loki taunted.

"So people who can't talk are all liars?" Neo asked. Loki opened and then shut his mouth. Where did the copy get a quick wit like that? "Don't tell me you've never felt something, or experienced something that you can't fully explain in words, because there are no words that can reproduce the feelings." Something must have shown in Loki's face because the clone smiled in triumph. "See you do know what I'm talking about."

"That proves nothing." Loki pointed out.

"It proves that your declaration that if I could not say it that it is not true is false." Neo replied.

"You'd believe anything they'd say to you, simply because they saved your pathetic little life, which is barely a life at all." Neo looked at him, hurt and puzzled.

"Why do you hate me?" He asked, childish and bewildered. Loki blinked a couple times, but before he could find anything to say the clone had gotten up and walked off. He heard the ding of the elevator being accessed and then Neo was gone. Loki looked down to see the roombas still hovering around.

"And what do you glorified vacuums want?" He demanded.

"Assshhoooolllleeee." The roombas chorused and then zoomed off.

%&%&%&%

"You want us to kick his ass for you?" Tony asked when Neo was done telling him what Loki had said.

"No, I don't think that would help." Neo replied.

"You're turning out to be a bit of a pacifist." Tony commented.

"Is that a bad thing?" Neo asked worriedly.

"Naw, too many people out in the world who think violence solves everything." Tony responded. "That's why the Avengers still get to save people, I mean if everyone was a pacifist we'd all be out of a job wouldn't we?" Neo chuckled at that. "You know he is the god of lies, right?"

"Yeah, but it's hard to ignore what people say." Neo frowned. "I know that I'm not some pet or some project."

"Damn right, got too many of those, and they're all pains in my ass, yes, I'm talking about you, you sorry excuse for a helper bot!" He yelled at Dummy, who was trying to cozy up to Neo in order to avoid actually working. Neo patted Dummy's struts, making the bot whir happily. "Get back to work you lazy bucket of bolts." Tony said.

"I'm just not sure why he's going after me, I've never done anything to him." Neo said.

"He feels threatened, or he feels like he's being replaced." Tony replied. "Or he's just an asshole and figures you're an easy target. Maybe all three." He looked at Neo, who had a frown on his face. "You sure you don't want us to do anything about this?"

"No, if it gets too bad, I'll say something." Neo replied.

"You don't want to get him sent back to Asgard." Tony guessed.

"Well, no." Neo said defensively.

"Easy kiddo, don't bite my head off. I don't particularly want to send him back there either, I've heard what they do with criminals there, and it ain't pretty. Doesn't do anybody any good either." Tony said.

"I just remember what Tasha says about how good people can do bad things." Neo shrugged. "Thor talks about Loki all the time, the way things were and, I don't know, I think it's better if we tried to help him, rather than hurt him more and make him more angry. Villains aren't like in kids' movies in real life, after all."

"No they aren't." Tony agreed. "You can still hit him though if he's being really nasty to you."


	13. Chapter 13

Star: I own nothing!

"He's testing the waters." Tasha said when Tony told them what Loki had tried to pull on Neo. "Trying to figure out where Neo's weak points are. That's why he had Barton tell him everything he could about all of us, figure out where our sticking points were and make sure he could press them. He doesn't know anything about Neo, so he's trying out different tactics on him."

"Makes sense." Steve agreed. They were all down in the training arena. Clint was duking it out with Tony, the genius was getting his ass handed to him. Neo was watching them, head cocked to one side as he listened into the conversation. It was a conscious decision to include him. They didn't want him thinking that they weren't telling him something.

"He's using the wrong tactics though, our boy knows we love him." Bruce said, grinning at Neo and hugging him around the shoulders with one arm. "Right, kiddo."

"Yup!" Neo agreed, the very picture of confidence. Steve hoped fervently that confidence was up to the task of dealing with Loki.

"You know what interests me about Loki?" Bruce commented.

"What?" Tasha asked.

"Have you noticed that a lot of the things he uses to try and degrade others can be turned on himself?" Bruce said. "The comment about being a beast that's making play he's still a man. Thor's said that the frost giants were seen as monsters, and Loki's only recently found out he's one, though he's trying to convince himself he's not like them."

"That's actually quite true when I think about it." Tasha agreed. "And his comment about not being able to wipe the red out of my ledger? He'd already had quite a bit of red in his ledger by the time I'd spoken to him." Neo looked at her in confusion. "It's a metaphor, kiddo. The red in my ledger is all the bad things I've done that I'm trying to make up for."

"Oh, okay, I get it."

"When he was talking to you he spoke of you being a pet, something being kept for amusement or some other purpose." Tasha went on. "He was adopted into the royal family, so it may be that he feels he was being kept, not as a family member."

"Which was never true." Thor protested with a growl.

"Perhaps not, but he twisted it that way, perhaps to explain why he was always second best?" Tasha suggested.

"Aye, that could be it." Thor agreed sadly.

"I think you need to spend more time with your brother." Neo piped up. "I mean he already thinks he's been replaced, so why not show him it's not true by still talking to him."

"I try." Thor admitted. "He does not want to speak to me."

"Asshole." Neo muttered.

"Watch your mouth." Steve admonished.

"I'm just calling it like I see it. He's an asshole." Neo shrugged. "Even the roombas are saying it."

"I'm going to have to have a talk with Tony about that one." Steve muttered. Tony went slamming into the practice mat just then.

"Ouch." Bruce said, wincing in sympathy as Tony got up, cursing up a storm.

"Tony, watch your language!" Steve reminded him.

"I just got rug burn on my face, Capsicle, I'm pretty sure I should be allowed to swear about it." Tony retorted. "Ow, that fucking hurt, Hawkass."

"Oh, cry me a river, Iron Butt." Clint taunted. Tony pouted outrageously and bounced over, flopping down on Bruce's lap.

"Brucie, kiss it better." He whined. Bruce only laughed and pushed his face away, though he didn't seem to have a problem with having a lapful of Tony Stark. Steve shook his head at Tony's antics. Tony had done the same sort of thing to him before, trying to get a rise out of him, until Steve had calmly informed him that he saw nothing wrong with love between two consenting adults, regardless of their genders. After that Tony just did it because he was Tony.

"Tony, why did you teach the roombas to call Loki an asshole?" Steve asked.

"You know, I actually didn't." Tony laughed. "But I have a tendency to mutter to myself while working so it's possible they just picked up on it. They are smart enough for that." He shrugged his shoulders. "I don't think there's a thing I can do about it now that they've chosen that as his name, my robots tend to be stubborn buggers. Look at Dummy, he decided Dummy was his name and I couldn't convince him otherwise."

"And then you named your next robots You and Butterfingers." Bruce reminded him, poking Tony in the side. "If you ever have kids, let your wife name them, please?"

"I pity the woman who marries Iron Butt." Clint said, wandering over. "Hey, Harry Potter, you want to have a go?"

"Me?" Neo asked, looking up and blinking.

"We got any other messy haired, green eyed lanky boys around here?" Clint asked with a grin. "Come on, come spar with me."

"I don't want to hurt you." Neo replied. "I am a lot stronger than you are."

"Yeah, and I've been training with super soldiers and the god of shampoo commercials over there." Clint retorted, gesturing at Thor. "Plus Tasha, and we all know she's the scary one."

"Nuh-uh." Neo protested with a grin.

"She's not scary for you because she happens to be a sucker for cute guys." Clint said. Tasha glared at him. "I'm going to die for that later." He added cheerfully. "Come on, kiddo, gotta learn to defend yourself properly at least. Strength doesn't always win fights and we're not always going to be here to make sure you don't get hurt."

"I know." Neo said grumpily. "Okay, but I better not break something."

"Heh, don't worry kid, I've got lots of experience with broken bones, one more won't kill me." Clint replied, sauntering back to the mat, Neo ambling after him.

"I'm surprised it took someone else this long to think of the Harry Potter thing." Tasha commented to no one in particular.

"Oh Jesus, how did I not notice that?" Tony said, hitting himself in the head. "I'm supposed to be the genius here, what is this world coming to?"

"Sanity?" Bruce suggested. "Are you comfy, by the way?" Tony had not yet left his spot in Bruce's lap.

"Quite, thank you Doctor Banner." Tony grinned at him. Tasha rolled her eyes at the two of them and shook her head at Steve.

"I think Neo's got a good point though, about Loki." She said. "You should keep paying attention to your brother, Thor."

"I would have anyways." Thor informed her. "He is my brother, I do not intend to give up on him, no matter how nasty he becomes to me."

"I think you should also avoid spending a lot of time one on one with Neo." Tasha added. Thor gave her a bewildered look. "Think about it, if Loki sees you playing with Neo, just you, what's he going to think?"

"He will think that he is in fact being replaced." Thor heaved a heavy sigh. "You are right, Tasha, you are most wise."

"No, I just know how people's minds work." Tasha retorted.

"She's not saying you have to avoid him all the time, just try to stay away from spending time alone with Neo. We do most things as a group anyways, so that's not that difficult." Bruce said, patting Thor's thigh consolingly. "We'll have to make sure to explain it to Neo though."

"Of course." Steve said, just as Clint went flying across the room.

"I'm so sorry, Clint!" Neo yelped.

"THAT WAS AWESOME!" Clint crowed, bouncing back up. "Do it again."

"No throwing Hawkeye!" And there was a phrase Steve never dreamed he'd have to say.

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Star: Review plz!


	14. Chapter 14

Star: I own nothing!

Thor waited as the rest of the household filtered in for dinner, but once again Loki seemed to be refusing to make an appearance. It worried him, because JARVIS had informed him that Loki was not sneaking out to get food on his own, but seemed to have embarked on a 'hunger strike'. Thor was happy for the AI's assistance, even though it still was strange to speak to a disembodied voice, for he would not have known that Loki was starving himself otherwise.

"Steve, will you come with me?" Thor asked. "I am not going to let my brother skip meals anymore, but he may not come willingly."

"Of course, Thor." Steve replied, getting up from his place at the table. Thor marched right up to Loki's room and then paused, feeling apprehensive. Forcing Loki to eat might only stir up more resentment, but he wasn't about to let his brother die. He felt Steve's hand on his shoulder, a steadying presence, and then knocked on the door.

"Go away." came the snarl from within.

"Brother, it is time for dinner, you should come out and eat." Thor said gently.

"I do not want your disgusting Midgardian excuse for a meal." Loki snarled in reply.

"Brother, you cannot starve yourself." Thor protested.

"Why not?" Was Loki's haughty reply. "I'm sure your new _friends_ would be happier if I was not here." Thor turned to Steve and shrugged his shoulders. Steve nodded his head and Thor opened the door. Loki glowered at the two of them. "If you will not come willingly brother, I'm afraid I have no choice."

Loki was taken by surprise for only a moment as Thor and Steve each grabbed one of his arms. He then fought, snarling and spitting curses. It was like trying to hold onto a snake, all coiled muscle and sinuous movement. Thor knew that he would not have been able to hold Loki without Steve's help. Between the two of them they managed to wrestle Loki out of his room and march him to the dinner table.

"Ooh, Mr. High and Mighty being forced to eat with the commoners." Tony commented with a smirk as Loki was forced to sit down. Thor and Steve both gave him a stern look. Thor sat down next to Loki and prepared a plate for him, which Loki stared at disdainfully.

"You cannot make me eat." He declared.

"Not right here." Steve replied evenly. "But if you continue to starve yourself it's a short trip to the infirmary and a tube down your throat to directly input meal supplements to your stomach. And in case you think of throwing them up you will be monitored for the time that it takes to digest the food and possibly restrained to prevent you from doing so."

"Take it from a guy who's been in that kind of situation, it's not fun. The tube goes in your nose and it's all slippery and gross and it just doesn't feel right." Tony said. "Plus it's undignified as all hell."

"Yes, because you're always so concerned about being dignified." Clint muttered sarcastically. Tony stuck his tongue out at the archer, who gave him a one-fingered salute in reply.

"Fine, I will comply, for now." Loki muttered. "Anything else you wish of me?" Steve looked up and Thor could see humour in the bright blue eyes.

"Eat your vegetables." The super-soldier said without a hint of irony in his voice. Tony and Clint promptly choked on what they were eating and Bruce let out a startled guffaw. Neo looked around, blinking in confusion and Tasha merely raised an eyebrow at Steve, who looked at them all innocently.

"Oh god, Captain America gets a sense of humour and nearly kills us, that is priceless." Tony declared.

"I'm sure I don't know what you're talking about Tony, now eat." Steve ordered. Thor watched Loki poke dubiously at the piece of meatloaf that had been dropped on his plate. It was Bruce's creation, a 'tandoori style' meatloaf, and as a result had a pleasing blend of spicy and sweet flavours.

"Quit poking at it, Rock of Ages, it's not going to bite you." Tony quipped, seeing Loki still just picking at the food. Loki responded with a vicious glare, but cut a small piece of the meatloaf off his portion and tasted it. Thor observed him chewing thoughtfully for a moment and then immediately cut off a bigger piece and eat it. He liked it, Thor could tell. Loki never wolfed his food down, but if he enjoyed it, or was very hungry, he'd take bigger portions at a time.

The dinnertime chatter carried on as it always did. Thor caught Neo discreetly watching Loki curiously. After a while, Loki noticed too and glared at his clone. "What?" He snapped. Neo's face flushed with embarrassment at being caught out.

"You look like a vampire." Neo said bluntly.

"I agree with the kid." Tony said. "Though, nothing wrong with vampires, unless they're fail-pires."

"What are you babbling about?" Loki asked, his voice laced with exasperation.

"You know what vampires are, right?" Loki nodded his head. "Well, there's this one set of books where the vampires don't burn in sunlight, instead they sparkle!"

"…what?" Loki stared at Tony like he'd lost his mind.

"They sparkle, like diamonds." Tony giggled, clearly enjoying himself. "You see why I call them fail-pires?"

"Those books have far more wrong with them than just the sparkling bloodsuckers." Tasha interjected. "Like the glorification of abusive relationships, the idea that a woman needs a man in her life in order for it to have meaning, not to mention the terrible grammar and lack of plot or character development."

"Oh god, please tell me you never read them." Tony said, sounding horrified.

"I was bored, wanted to see what the hype was. First time I'd ever thought of condoning book burning." Tasha informed him, shaking her head.

"I like werewolves better than vampires, but not the ones that just turn into mindless beasts." Neo said happily. "Although I make an exception for Lupin."

"He's not so mindless when he's taken the Wolfsbane Potion though." Bruce reminded him.

"Mindless beasts, he should not like you then, should he Banner?" Thor turned to reprimand Loki for the cutting remark, but Neo beat him to it.

"The Hulk's not mindless, he just can't always control himself when he gets too angry. If he was mindless he wouldn't have protected me like he did." Neo glared sternly at Loki, reminding Thor of Steve so much that he grinned. "Besides, Bruce isn't the Hulk, they're two different people, so even if I didn't like the Hulk I could still like Bruce."

Thor watched his brother, waiting, but Loki said nothing more. He watched Neo though, eying him like a puzzle that was proving particularly hard to solve. Thor understood; Loki couldn't fathom where Neo's confidence in himself and the ones he called family came from. Thor thought that if Loki could learn to understand that, he would have his brother back, at least in part.

"Eat your vegetables, or Steve will get after you." Neo reminded Loki, pointing at Loki's unfinished dinner.

"You are a strange creature." Loki commented.

Neo shrugged. "Look at who I have for my role models." Clint spat out his drink and Tony started laughing like a hyena. Neo grinned widely, pleased at the reaction to his joke.

"If there was any proof that he's been spending too much time around Stark, that was it." Tasha commented, making Tony cackle with laughter again.

"What's wrong with that?" Tony asked when he had his giggles under control.

"I've worked as one of your employees, remember, Stark?" Natasha replied, completely deadpan.

"Steve's good-ole-boy attitude will even it out." Clint assured her. "I'm mean he's practically Neo's dad, after all. We're all just the crazy aunts and uncles that happen to live here."

"I'm not sure if I should be offended by that or not." Bruce said, shaking his head.

"It's great Bruce, it means we have an excuse to spoil Neo rotten and act all crazy around him." Tony replied, throwing an arm around Neo's shoulders.

"Tony, don't you already do that?" Bruce asked patiently.

"Yeah, but now I pretty much have permission to do it." Tony grinned and Bruce shook his head. Thor looked down at a clink. Loki had pushed his now empty plate away.

"Have I finished my meal to your satisfaction?" Loki demanded with a sneer in his voice. Steve looked at the plate and nodded. "Then I am leaving."

"Suit yourself." Steve replied mildly. Loki stood up and stalked away from the table. Thor waited until he was sure that Loki would not hear him and grinned at his friends.

"That went a lot better than I expected."

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Star: Review plz!


	15. Chapter 15

Star: I own nothing!

Tony stumbled out of the elevator and meandered his way over to the couch. It was probably about one in the morning, or two, he wasn't sure, but he wasn't going to bed yet. He was just not going to be in his workshop anymore where he could accidently blow himself up. He made it over to the couch and flopped down on it, accidently kicking someone else in the head. He looked up at an indignant yelp and met glaring green eyes.

"Oh hey Reindeer Games, not sleeping either, huh?" Loki just continued to glare at him. "Aww, come on, don't tell me you're still sore about dinner, are you?"

"If you are referring to the humiliating incident of being dragged to the table and forced to partake in a _'family' _meal, how would you feel?" Loki demanded haughtily.

"I don't have to imagine, I know." Tony grinned. "Used to have a habit of holing myself up in my workshop, forgetting to eat, sleep and do all those things that human people do. The rest of the Avengers decided they didn't like that and took to dragging me out of there when it was time to eat."

"Hmph, barbaric." Loki sneered.

"Hey, at least I know they care." Tony shrugged. "Besides, I got to find out that Steve has a really nice ass."

"I fail to see why I should know this." Loki said loftily. "Why then are you still awake, if they drag you away from your work?"

"Because they seem to trust I'll get to bed on my own?" Tony shrugged again. He was well aware that he was talking too much but was too tired to shut himself up. "Used to avoid sleep because I'd get horrible nightmares, but they've gotten better since the others moved in. Hard to break the habit of avoiding sleep as long as possible though."

"You mortals, brought down by mere nightmares." Loki scoffed.

"Oh, and what are you doing out here, avoiding sleep, Mr. High and Mighty?" Tony smirked as Loki glared at him. "I'm not sure if you realize just how fucked up I am."

"Oh please, do enlighten me." Loki said sarcastically.

"Oooh, god, where to begin?" Tony shifted so that he was almost sitting upside down, with his feet up on the back of the couch. "Let's start with the childhood. So my dad wasn't really the nurturing type, in fact he was so closed off it was like he wasn't there at all. Me I tried to get his attention by being smart, because I'm a genius, you know? Nothing ever worked, so I grew up pretty starved of affection, always bullied for being so damned smart and for having a smart mouth, okay?"

"My heart bleeds." Loki sneered.

"So, awful childhood done, we move into the adult years. So my role model was a drunk and a 'ladies man' so how do you think I turned out? Still couldn't hold down a relationship, parents dead at seventeen, but somehow I still manage to get a few people in my life I can trust and who actually seem to give a shit about me. So I'm stuck in this alcohol-women-work abuse cycle and figure I'm dead before I'm fifty if I'm lucky, but then something happens."

"Well, don't keep me in suspense."

"I get myself nearly killed and kidnapped." Tony said. "See this thing?" He tapped the circle of light that was his reactor. "This thing keeps me alive. First one made basically could keep me alive for only a short time. The people who took me wanted me to make a new weapon for them. They tortured me until I acted like I was going to comply. I wasn't, of course. I made a new reactor, one that would last, and I made the first Iron Man suit." He paused and then continued. "Sometimes when I wake up it's with the feeling that I'm being drowned again…"

Loki was silent, but Tony plowed on. "So I got out, got back and decided to hell with the weapons business, I've got enough blood on my hands now, and started making more suits, so I could make a difference. Things were going good, but of course fate still has to screw with me." Tony licked his lips and then continued. "A man I regarded as a father-figure, practically family, came and tore the reactor out of my chest, leaving me to die while he used my invention to make another weapon. I didn't die, of course, and I stopped him, killed him, almost died again, which seems to be a fucking pattern for me, doesn't it?"

"Why are you telling me all this?" Loki asked. There was no bite in his voice now.

"Because I'm fucking tired and have no boundaries, that's why." Tony giggled. "You're lucky I'm not trying to crawl into your lap right now."

"That would be inadvisable." Loki said coldly.

"Yeah well, enough depressing talk, let's watch a movie." Tony launched himself off the couch and started rifling through the collection of movies they had. "Something that's going to bend our minds a little, it's that kind of night, don't you think?"

Loki shrugged, looking bored. How much of that was an act Tony wondered. He turned back to his decision on the movie and finally decided on Shutter Island. He popped it in and flopped down on the couch again, giving Loki a crazy grin. Loki rolled his eyes, but focused on the movie as it came on.

%&%&%&%

Loki had no idea what to think of Stark's confession from the night before. The mortal could have easily be lying to him, but the stories did match up to what had been in Stark's SHIELD files. He was very good in any case at picking out when people were lying to him, barring that one time with the Black Widow, and he was still pissed about that.

He eyed Stark across the breakfast table, appraising him. Stark had been friendly last night, inordinately so, considering how they all seemed to avoid him as much as possible normally. So, what had last night been? A ploy, a ruse to get him to relax his guard, did they have some plan to humiliate him further? No, he didn't think they were that clever. It could have been simply Stark looking for someone to talk to and he being the only option. If that were true there was a way to test it and see if Stark would continue to ignore him or not.

"I believe that Laeddis was only pretending to believe himself to still be Daniels in the end." He said, knowing that only Stark would have any idea of what he was talking about. The conversations halted and everyone looked at him.

"Naw, I think he was just crazy." Stark replied.

"If you are talking about Shutter Island, and I assume you are, I agree with Loki, Stark." Agent Romanoff stated quietly.

"Why in the hell would he fake being crazy?" Tony demanded. "Doesn't make any sense."

"Laeddis asked if it would be better to live as a monster or die as a good man." Loki reminded him. "The whole point of his delusions was that he did not want to remember that he was the one who had killed his wife, that he was the monster."

"And now that he could remember he didn't want to anymore, and the lobotomy would take care of that." Agent Romanoff finished for him. "Having his brains scooped out was preferable to the guilt he felt."

"Jesus, you guys think about these things too much." Stark informed them. "You liked it then?"

"It was tolerable." Loki said distantly. It was, in fact, a very intelligent and engaging film, but he'd be damned if he was going to tell these mortals that.

"Leonardo Di Caprio, the guy playing Laediss, he's in another mind-bending movie called Inception, but that one's even more mind-bending than Shutter Island, courtesy of one of the masters of film himself, Christopher Nolan."

"Who?" Loki asked disdainfully. He wasn't sure why he was continuing to talk, having seen that it was not completely out of exhaustion and lack of other options that Stark had spoken to him last night. He supposed it was nice to be able to converse with someone of some intelligence again; he wasn't completely antisocial after all and a good conversation was welcome. He hadn't realized how starved for contact he'd gotten. It annoyed him that he still had such weaknesses, but he could work on that.

"God-damn you got a lot to learn. Christopher Nolan writes screenplays for movies, and directs and produces them, and most of his movies are A, very intelligent, and B, quite dark in terms of themes. He did Inception, which, like I said, is a mind-bender, and he also did the most recent batman… ew, Neo, really?"

The clone looked up from pouring syrup on his scrambled eggs and made a face at Tony. "You put ketchup on your bacon." The clone pointed out.

"Touche…" Tony grumbled. "Anyways, he's also done the newest trilogy of Batman movies, which were kick-ass."

"I do not know of these things." Loki said in a carefully bored tone. The conversation was interesting, and he was curious as to whatever a 'Batman' was. It sounded strange and foolish, but the way Stark said it made it sound like it was anything but.

"Eh well, not like you got anything else to do around here, we can marathon the Batman movies." Stark suggested.

"We?" Loki repeated disdainfully. "I think not." With that he stood up and sauntered out of the room. He had probably confused the entire room and the thought pleased him.


	16. Chapter 16

Star: I own nothing

Frigga paused for a moment after the Bifrost deposited her on the balcony of the Avengers tower to have a look at the city spread out below. It was night, and the darkness was lit by lights of all colours. It held a strange, alien beauty to her and she spent a few minutes just watching the lights. She then shook herself out of her reverie and went inside.

The first person she encountered was Neo, playing with some sort of half-transparent game, his face set in solemn concentration. She approached him and he looked up, green eyes widening in surprise at the sight of her. She smiled at him, reassuringly.

"Hello again." She greeted.

"Hello ma'am." He said politely.

"What is that?" She asked, indicating his toy.

"It's an architecture program, ma'am." Neo explained. "It lets me build structures and see if they'll work in the real world without actually having to build them in the real world."

"So you like to build things?" Frigga asked.

"Yes, ma'am."

"A well-intentioned endeavour." Frigga said. "Now, have you seen either of my sons?"

"Thor's in the training room with Tony, and Loki's in his room." Neo answered.

"Thank you."

"You're welcome." Neo smiled at her and she smiled back before heading off down the hall. She didn't bother knocking on the door, and went straight in. Loki was reading in an armchair. He looked up at her, but said nothing.

"You should open the curtains." Frigga suggested, doing just that. Loki winced at the sudden bright light. "There, isn't that better?"

"Why are you here?" It wasn't a hostile question, but it wasn't terribly friendly either.

"I am here to see my son." Frigga replied.

"Then go see Thor." Loki growled. Frigga knelt down and grasped Loki's chin, forcing him to look her in the eye.

"You are my son. I have loved you from the very beginning and you have been mine. It does not matter that you did not come from me." Frigga told him fiercely. "You are our son, Loki."

"Odin had ulterior motives for placing me as your son." Loki spat. Frigga sighed.

"Odin has ulterior motives for everything. It was only a matter of time before they backfired on him. I just wish it didn't have to be in this way."

"You could have told me." Loki accused.

"I did not want you to feel different." Frigga replied. "Besides, the more people know something the easier it is to spread. I know that you were not well-liked among your peers, but it would have been worse had they known your true parentage."

"Instead you let me grow up, hating my own kind." Loki said sarcastically. "So much better."

"We are not infallible, Loki, don't ever mistake us for that." Frigga said sternly. "I had asked Odin, many times, to tell you the truth, but he refused, and I could not go against him." She sighed. "We have done poorly by you and I am sorry for that."

"And what about Odin?" Loki asked.

"Odin has schemes within schemes, I know not what he thinks. You are like him in that manner." Frigga sighed again. "Are you well, Loki? Please, tell me."

"I am not being ill-treated, unless you count being dragged to the dinner table and threatened with force-feeding if I did not eat with them." Loki replied. There was very little heat in his words though, as though he were unsure if it was in fact ill-treatment.

"Thor was worried for you, I assume." Frigga suggested.

"The oaf. Stark did mention they did much the same to him in the beginning, out of concern for his health." He added thoughtfully. "Perhaps I am reading too much into it."

"You have a tendency to do that." Frigga admitted. "I should not be away for too long." She said, standing up. "May I visit you again?" Loki looked up at her, surprise flickering briefly in his green eyes before it fled, leaving only uncaring ambiguity.

"Perhaps." He said with an uninterested air.

"I will see you soon, my son." Frigga promised and walked from the room. She needed to have a talk with her other son about his manner in dealing with Loki. She entered the elevator, remembering from the last time she was here that it took them down several floors. She paused though, not sure of which button to press.

"**Can I be of assistance, madam?"** She jumped at the disembodied voice.

"Yes, you are JARVIS, correct?"

"**Yes, madam." **

"I would like to see Thor, please."

"**Of course, madam." **

The elevator started moving on its own and she braced herself with a hand on the wall. The sensation of falling was strange, though not completely unpleasant. Briefly she wondered what would happen if whatever powered the contraption failed and then put it out of her mind. The elevator made a dinging noise and the doors slid open to reveal a large open room with Thor in the middle sparring with a red and yellow metal man. She guessed this to be Tony Stark.

"Thor, I need to speak with you." She called, stepping further into the room. Thor and Tony separated, the faceplate of Tony's Iron Man suit coming up to reveal his face.

"Good evening, o Queen of Asgard." Tony said with a deep bow. Her mouth twitched up in a smile at the gesture of mingled respect and mockery. It reminded her of Loki.

"Good evening, Man of Iron." She inclined her head, imitating his gestures.

"Dude, I like your mom, she's got moxie." Tony said to Thor.

"Mother, what are you here for?" Thor asked, looking surprised.

"To see my sons of course." Frigga replied imperiously. "I spoke to Loki already."

"He spoke to you? He still will not speak to me."

"I can't imagine why after threatening him in order to make him eat." She pinned Thor with a stern stare. Thor began to shuffle like a child that knew he had done something wrong.

"We could find no other way to get him to eat." He mumbled. "I will not watch my brother starve."

"You could not have talked to him, gotten him to eat that way?" Frigga asked.

"He would not speak to me, except to spit curses." Thor replied. "He is not inclined to listen to me, more inclined to do the exact opposite just to spite me." He sighed. "It pains me that my brother hates me so much."

"I'm not certain Loki hates you, he's just trying to convince himself he does." Frigga said thoughtfully.

"But why?" Thor practically whined. "I do not understand, I've never seen him as anything but my brother, my equal."

"You two were always together." Frigga mused. "Look at it from Loki's perspective, my son, he's always been the second son, you've always been the golden one, the one everyone pays attention to. He has been conditioned by his peers and, unfortunately, your father, to believe he would never measure up. You may not have seen him that way, but you were the one who was always in the spotlight, not him, and part of him resents you for that."

"I can relate." Tony cut in. "My dad never gave me the time of day, his own flesh and blood, but he spent so much time and money searching for a guy that went missing in the forties. When I first met Steve I hated him because he was everything I always thought my father dreamed of in a son, and I couldn't be that. Thankfully I got over that and saw that Steve is really a great guy, but that feeling of inadequacy is tougher to beat."

"Precisely." Frigga agreed. "And I am sorry for your father, Tony Stark."

"Eh, don't be. I've made my peace with it, mostly." Tony shrugged. "So the best thing would be to avoid making him feel like he's inferior, which we already did by forcing him to eat with us. Maybe we could give him the option to take meals alone? JARVIS can make sure he's actually eating. And we need to actually talk to him, I already have, I don't think Clint will, but if at least one person is friendly to him it might make a difference."

"This is a wise plan." Frigga said.

"Well, I am a genius." Tony said with a smirk. Loki should like the man; they seemed to have similar ideas about humour in any case. She felt more hopeful about Loki than she had when she arrived and decided that she would leave it on that note.

"My son, I'm afraid I cannot stay longer." She said.

"Of course, Mother." Thor said, consenting to be embraced and kissed on the forehead. Frigga stepped back into the elevator and smiled all the way up and back to Asgard.

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Star: Review plz!


	17. Chapter 17

Star: I own nothing!

Loki was bored of pacing his room all day or reading. He'd yet to do any exploring of the rest of the Tower and decided to do so now. He snuck out, not wishing to be spotted by Thor the Oaf, or any of the others and snuck into the elevator. He pressed a random button, figuring that if they didn't want him to be, there would be protocols in place to keep him out.

The door opened and he heard Stark yell

"Hey, Dummy, get back here!" A metallic monstrosity wheeled up to him and he jerked back, staring at it. "Dummy, you brat." The metallic thing, Dummy, made a clacking noise at him and tilted the camera mounted on the front, in a parody of confusion. "No, that's not Neo, that's Loki, completely different, see the long hair, no, no, no, he's not going to want to play fetch with you."

Loki stared as the thing brought him a brightly coloured ball, pushing at him with a chirping noise. "What is it?" He demanded.

"It's a ball, you know, round, you throw it." Loki gave Stark an annoyed look. "Okay, Mr. Grumpy, he is Dummy, he's a robot, kind of like the roombas, but a little more sophisticated and a hell of a lot more stubborn. I'm supposed to be fixing a problem with his wiring, but he's being a brat and won't sit still. You are a useless pile of scrap, get over here!" Stark yelled, waving a wrench in Dummy's direction.

The robot ignored him, chirping again at Loki and pushed the ball at him again. "Go away." He told it.

"Just throw it, otherwise I'm not going to get anything done and he's going to sulk. Trust me, there's nothing worse than a sulky robot." Stark sighed. "Just throw it once and he should leave you alone."

"Oh fine." Loki groused, taking the ball and throwing it in a random direction. The robot chased after it, whistling happily.

"Okay, okay, you've had your fun, now come here, Dummy come on, you brat." Stark sighed. "I'm never gonna get any work done, why do I have you, why do I keep you? Should just sell you for scrap, it would be more useful."

"So why don't you?" Loki asked, watching the robot zoom around, ignoring Stark, with some amusement.

"Too much effort to build another one." Stark replied, but Loki caught the undertone of affection in his voice. "Hey, he might let himself be distracted by you long enough for me to do those repairs. What do you say, help a guy out?"

"And what's in it for me?" Loki asked, raising an eyebrow at Stark.

"I won't have JARVIS put in a protocol to keep you out of here." Stark answered.

"What makes you think that has any value to me?"

"You haven't left yet." Stark pointed out. "Come on, you got anything better to do today?"

"Fine, Stark, if it will cease your whining." Loki sighed, rolling his eyes and stalking over to the workbench. The robot followed, making interested clicking noises. "What do you want me to do?" He asked with a superior air.

"Just… keep him occupied, let him play with your hands, or your clothes, pet him where I'm not working, he gets a little nervous about this sort of thing and it helps." Stark explained.

"How does a machine get scared?" Loki wondered.

"Alright, I gotta explain something here, and it's a little odd, but bear with me, okay?" Stark said, putting down his tools and rubbing the robot. "There's something called a Turing test, and what that is it's a test of a machine's ability to exhibit intelligent behavior equivalent to, or indistinguishable from, that of an actual human, basically a test of actual intelligence versus simulated. So according to the Turing test Dummy is a person, because he has that intelligence, but he also has personality, I mean you saw him rushing around, ignoring me. He's probably about as smart as a three to five year old, which is about as much as a parrot. You following this?"

"I believe so." Loki said, looking at the robot and doubting that it had anything like Stark was saying. "Does it speak?"

"Dummy's a he, and no, I didn't make him with vocal processers." Stark replied. "Now hold still you stubborn toddler." He muttered to Dummy. Loki distracted the robot by tapping one of its metallic struts. It responded by tapping his arm and then grabbing at his sleeve. It wasn't until Dummy let out a distressed noise as Stark tightened something and nudged against Loki like a dog that he began to think that perhaps Stark was right.

"Shh, it's okay buddy, I know you don't like that, doesn't feel nice, huh?" Stark said in a gentle tone. Loki moved one hand to stroke Dummy's upper strut and let the robot grasp at his fingers. "And there, we're done." Stark gave Dummy a brisk pat and the robot zoomed off, whistling happily.

"Doesn't hold grudges, does he?" Loki commented.

"Naw, he's pretty happy-go-lucky." Stark said, putting away his tools. "Completely useless at helping me when I need him, though."

"So why don't you take away his intelligence, then? If he's not doing what you created him to." Loki queried. Stark looked up at him, looking surprised.

"That'd be pretty much killing him, I mean I know he's a robot, but he's alive, and taking away what makes him able to think for himself, that's taking away what's…Dummy. How could I do that?" Stark asked.

"But why make it so that he could become actually intelligent in the first place when he's so much trouble?"

"Dummy was kind of an accident." Stark explained, scratching the back of his neck. "I was seventeen, my parents had just died and I was on one of the biggest alcoholic binges of my life. I'd been working on artificial intelligence for some time, mostly because people were saying it's not possible, but I'm Tony fucking Stark and I can make it possible. I don't even really remember making him, just waking up and having this monstrosity leaning over me, clicking at me."

"Alright, so Dummy was an accident, but what about those two?" Loki asked, indicating the other two robots wheeling around with Dummy.

"That's You and Butterfingers, and I figured Dummy needed a little bit of help. They're a bit better behaved than he is, but not by much, I blame Dummy for that though." Stark laughed.

"Yes, but why did you make them alive?" Loki persisted. Stark looked at the three robots thoughtfully for a long moment.

"I suppose in my mind it's been better to have helpers who can actually think for themselves rather than mindless drones. I spend a lot of time down here, used to do it more so I don't see a lot of human contact, so having them here gives me someone to talk to and besides that, they make me laugh." Stark shrugged. "Pepper says they're more useful like this because they can distract me from my work and make me remember to eat and sleep and do all those things that human people are supposed to do."

"So they're more useful because they're useless? That seems a bit contradictory." Loki commented.

"Pff, have you met humans? We full of contradictions. I mean they are useful though, as much as I gripe, they do help, and Dummy once saved my life."

"How so?" Loki asked curiously, absentmindedly allowing Dummy to play with his fingers.

"I told you about Obie taking this out, right?" Stark asked, tapping the blue light in his chest. Loki nodded his head. "Well, it happened that the one he took out was an upgrade, and I still had the old one down in my workshop. The problem was getting to it before the shrapnel found my heart, yeah? I actually got down to the workshop, but collapsed before I could get to the spare arc reactor. Thought I was a goner for sure, until Dummy handed the damned thing to me. So, he saved my life."

"Do you think he understood what he was doing for you?" Loki asked, eying Dummy.

"I kind of think he did. He was around when I was making the upgrade, and I talked enough about it around him, he'd probably make the connection." Stark said, gazing at Dummy fondly. "He's a good boy."

"He seems to like fingers." Loki commented, pulling his index finger out of the robot's grasp.

"He likes you." Stark said. "He'll be all over you if you come down again, and he'll sulk if he doesn't see you, trust me, he does it if I'm not down here for at least an hour a day."

"Well, we can't have a sulking robot now can we?" Loki said with some amusement.

"That's the spirit!" Stark said, slapping him on the back. "Okay, but Neo also likes to come down here, so you gotta at least try to be polite to him, or avoid him, because otherwise I'm going to have to make you leave." Loki didn't like that idea, but he enjoyed Stark's company.

"I suppose if I must…" He sighed dramatically, making Stark snigger.

"That's the spirit, now see if you can keep Dummy from stealing my pens from me."

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Star: Review plz!


	18. Chapter 18

Star: I own nothing!

Steve wandered into the living room and found Neo playing with his tablet while watching Magic School Bus. Clint and Bruce were on dinner duty and it was starting to smell like curry. He quietly sat down and studied Neo's face. It was interesting how much he and Loki looked alike, but at the same time did not look alike. Neo had an open face, his emotions bared to all, Loki's expression was often closed, or put on as a mask over his true feelings.

Steve flipped open his sketchbook and began to draw. After some time he felt another presence at his side. He smiled at Neo trying to get a look at what he was drawing; perpetually curious would be a perfect way to describe the kid. Neo pushed Steve's hand out of the way to get a better look and grinned at the sight of himself being sketched out.

"What do you think, kiddo?" Steve asked.

"It looks really good, do I really stick my tongue out when I'm concentrating on something?" Neo asked.

"Yes, all the time." Steve chuckled, ruffling his hair. Neo wrinkled his nose, looking annoyed at the thought. Steve looked at the drawing. It was still only a rough sketch, but he could already see the bright, interested light in Neo's eyes coming out. That was the part of drawing he liked best, being able to see it come alive under his fingers.

"Has anyone seen Loki?" Thor asked, striding into the room, looking worried. "He is not in his room."

"**Loki is down in Sir's workshop with him." **JARVIS answered.

"They are… alright?" Thor asked with some surprise.

"**They seem to be fine in each other's company." **The AI replied.

"Oh, good. It's good that Loki's found someone to talk to." Thor sounded disappointed though. Steve thought he was probably upset that it wasn't him. "Oh, is this the show with the magical yellow vehicle?" Thor suddenly asked, brightening.

"Yeah, this episode's almost over, but there's another one coming on." Neo said brightly. Thor sat down on the couch, making it creak with his weight. Neo turned off whatever he was working on and focused his full attention on the television. Steve smiled as the familiar theme song came on. Although the show was meant for children it was very informative and made the scientific concepts easier to understand while still being fun. Thor liked it because it taught him Midgardian science without being too difficult to understand, like Tony was.

"Oh hey, Magic School Bus, awesome show." Tony slid over the back of the couch to wiggle his way in between Neo and Thor. "Hey it's the bakery one, even better."

"It's a children's program." Loki's voice said above them, sneeringly.

"Yeah, so?" Tony countered. "The fact of the matter is it's one of the few educational shows that get kids to learn without trying to shove it down their throats or condescending them, and for that I think it deserves a medal. Also, I think Ms. Frizzle is a Time Lord."

"A what?" Four voices asked at once. Tony looked horrified.

"Okay, JARVIS, put on Doctor Who series one, episode entitled Rose. We are going to educate you poor ignorant fools, and that includes you Loki, so sit your skinny ass down." Tony ordered. Loki held his gaze for a moment, looking mulish, and then silently walked over to one of the armchairs and sat down in it, looking disinterested.

"Okay, so the CGI's not the greatest in this, but that's the BBC budget for you, but the acting is great and the stories are awesome." Tony babbled as the theme song came on and a blue box went flying across the screen.

"What is that?" Neo asked.

"I can't tell you, it'll spoil the story, just watch." Tony said. Steve settled in, knowing Tony would just get irritated if they kept talking. He decided he liked the shaven headed man after he told Rose to run for her life with a devilish gleam in his eyes. Tony was right about the CGI effects, they were pretty substandard compared to some of the modern movies Steve had seen. The story was good though, just as Tony had promised.

"Okay, we can watch more after dinner, food's on!" Clint called when the episode was over. Tony grumbled but got up, helped to his feet by Neo. Everyone drifted over to the dinner table, where there was coconut curry chicken on rice with steamed vegetables.

"Why do I get the feeling you've probably tried to make a TARDIS?" Loki asked of Tony as they ate.

"Hells yeah, and a sonic screwdriver, which was a little more successful." Tony grinned. "The big problem was time travel, the whole bigger on the inside thing should be easy once I've got the quantum equations worked out."

"I think Asgardian technology could make it." Thor said.

"Hey, I am not using your magical mystical mumbo-jumbo to make my TARDIS. It's going to be my tech or nothing at all, no offence buddy." Tony replied. Thor shrugged, unoffended. "Where would you go, if you could go anywhere in time and space?" He asked. "Question for everyone. Some rules, can't change anything in your own past, can't change anything major in the past, we'll get to why in the show later on."

"I'd go to the planet Barcelona, dogs with no noses, enough said." Clint grinned.

"Oh good, a fellow Whovian, I was starting to lose faith in all of you." Tony quipped.

"I'd want to observe a supernova." Bruce said quietly. "As close as I could get."

"See the first performance of Tchaikovsky's the Sleeping Beauty." Natasha decided. "I was a ballerina, once." She said defensively at Tony's wide-eyed look.

"I suppose I'd just want to see for myself some of the things that happened while I was frozen, maybe get to see the first walk on the moon." Steve said.

"I'd go back in time to see the ruins of Rome, and Egypt and stuff before they were all ruins." Neo piped up.

"I'd go somewhere adventurous." Thor declared. Tony stared at Loki, who was silent for a long time.

"Somewhere quiet, peaceful." He finally said in a quiet tone. "And what about you, Stark? Where would you go?"

"Hmm, I think I'd be most interested in just learning from the Doctor, to be honest." Tony admitted. "But if I had to go one place, I think it'd be the moon, just to look down and see what those astronauts saw that completely awestruck, just to remind myself how fragile this all is and to remind me why I do what I do."

"Wow, that was incredibly sappy." Clint declared.

"Shut up and let me have my moment, Hawkass." Tony retorted. "By the way this coconut curry is really fucking good."

"Tony, language." Steve reminded him.

"Thank you, Captain Censor." Tony responded, throwing a mock-salute. Steve, used to his antics, just shook his head.

"So are we going to watch more Doctor Who after dinner?" Neo asked eagerly. Natasha stabbed her knife into her chicken and glared at them.

"You started watching Doctor Who without me?" She asked, her voice cool.

"Just the first episode, we swear." Tony yelped, waving his arms around. "Please don't kill me!"

"Well, you haven't gotten to the Empty Child, so I suppose I'll let you live for now." Natasha replied, relaxing minutely.

"What's the Empty Child?" Thor asked.

"The episode where I get to laugh at you all pissing yourselves in terror." Natasha replied, smiling.

"And there goes her serial killer smile." Tony muttered. "Is it bad that the scariest person here is also one of the tiniest? I wasn't going to say woman, I like my balls where they are and I know Pepper, remember?" He said to Natasha.

"Your Midgardian women certainly are an interesting lot." Loki commented. "I had not expected to be outwitted by you, Agent Romanoff."

"Not many people do." Natasha replied, smiling slightly. Loki gave her the tiniest of smiles back.

"Alright, get your asses in gear and finish dinner, because we got six seasons of Doctor Who to get through!"

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Star: 20 days until part two of season 7 people!


	19. Chapter 19

Star: I own nothing!

"What would you do if I somehow conjured an army of gas mask zombies all crying for their mummies to march on New York?" Tony looked up from his tweaking of the suit, wrinkling his nose at Loki.

"Interesting way to start a conversation." He commented.

"I'm an interesting person." Loki replied loftily. Tony snickered at him and was rewarded with a faint smile.

"I think I'd first scream and then go on the hunt to kick your ass in my Iron Man armour." Tony answered. "Should have known showing you that would have given you ideas."

"I suspect there will be more. I particularly enjoyed watching Agent Romanoff grinning wickedly every time someone jumped."

"I'd hate to watch a horror movie with her, she'd probably do her best to scare us." Tony replied. "She's got quite the mischievous streak in her."

"Hmm, she is an exceptional mortal." Loki admitted.

"Hey, what am I then?" Tony demanded.

"Entertainment?" Loki suggested with a wicked grin.

"Oh, that's the way you want to play, huh? Well you can get out if you're going to be like that." Tony grinned, making it clear he was only joking.

"There was something in those episodes that struck me." Loki said slowly.

"What?"

"At the end, when the Doctor figures out how to save the gas mask zombies, and he says that everyone lives just this once, the joy on his face." Loki paused. "It really shows just how much he's lost, just how much pain he's gone through, that such a thing would bring him such joy."

"Yeah, I mean the show is fun, but at the core it's about a man who has gone through a lot of shit and is basically running away from that. It's when that catches up to him that you get some of the best performances, really." Tony explained. "That's the real beauty of the show is that it can be fun sometimes, scary sometimes and then sometimes it just punches you in the gut with feels. I can't wait until we get to the end of season four, I guarantee there will be crying."

"Oh, why?" Loki asked, curious.

"Spoilers!" Tony chirped. Loki gave him an annoyed look.

"I could probably just find what I want to know on the internet, couldn't I?" He guessed.

"Probably, but what's the fun in that? Knowing what's going to happen, I mean, takes away the mystery." Tony protested.

"I suppose it would." Loki admitted with a regretful sigh. "What exactly are you trying to do here?" He asked.

"I'm trying to make this easier to get off if I need to in the field." Tony explained. "If the suit goes dead with me still in it I'd like to be able to get out of it, but I don't want it falling apart when I don't want it to."

"I suppose that would be a bit unfortunate." Loki commented. He ran his fingers over the armour's arm.

"Hey, quit feeling up my suit." Tony joked. Loki looked at him, humour in his green eyes and continued to inspect the Iron Man armour. "Haven't you seen it before? What's so exciting?"

"I have seen it in action, but not up close like this." Loki murmured. "It's incredibly impressive."

"Yeah, well, you know, genius." Tony said. The soft, curious expression on Loki's face made his stomach do a strange little flip-flop.

"It's almost artistic, the way the plates fit together so smoothly, I think you would make even the dwarves jealous of you." Loki said quietly.

"You're being oddly receptive today, I'm not sure if that scares me or not." Tony commented. Loki looked up, eyes alight with amusement.

"It probably should." Loki said. "But I am being truthful, at least this time. Your armour is amazing."

"Should see the early tests, funny as hell." Tony said. "In fact, JARVIS, pull up the test videos for the Iron Man, repulsors and Iron Man Mark II tests."

"**Yes Sir." **A screen lit up and began with the footage of Tony testing the repulsors. Loki looked on with interest and winced when Tony was catapulted backwards and hit the wall.

"That looked painful." He commented.

"I was drunk at the time so I didn't really notice." Tony said with a shrug. Loki gave him a look he couldn't quite decipher and went back to watching Tony make a fool out of himself with the repulsors.

"This seems like a rather inelegant and foolhardy method of testing." Loki said a few moments later.

"Oh it is, but that's the way I roll. And in any case this wasn't something I was putting on the market, didn't want anyone to know about it so all the tests had to be done by me, in my workshop." Tony explained. "I didn't have time for anything else."

"What do you mean?"

"The group that captured me, that wanted me to make weapons, I needed to get to them before they could do more damage, I needed to stop the cycle before it continued, or more people would die because of me." Tony growled.

"You did not kill those people directly." Loki pointed out, sounding baffled.

"Yeah, but I made the weapons that did. I never thought about where they were going, who was using them. I'm responsible, I might not be as guilty as those who actually pulled the triggers, but there's a reason they used to call me the Merchant of Death." Tony took a deep breath.

"You must have many demons, how do you cope with them?" Loki asked, absently petting Dummy.

"I used to drink, can't think about the problems if you can't think straight, right? I stopped that though, kind of had to, everyone was worried about me." Tony said. "Now… I guess being an Avenger, feeling like I'm giving something back, that I'm paying for my sins, so to speak. It's not easy, there are definitely bad days, but I've gotten good at bad days, that's part of the reason I stay down here, keep my mind occupied, turn my demons into work, you know, that sort of thing. And what about you, got any demons?"

Loki's lips thinned and he turned his face away from Tony. "I do not discuss myself with mortals." He said contemptuously. Tony knew deflecting tactics when he saw them though, he'd used them himself many times before. He'd brought up something Loki didn't want to think about, maybe something that was painful, or that he didn't understand.

"Hmph, guy bares his soul and he gets nothing in return, and I resent that mortals remark, my genius is practically inhuman." Tony retorted, trying to keep the mood light.

"You may think that, Stark." Loki said coolly. "You're still just another insect."

"Ouch, just ouch." Tony stared at the back of Loki's head. "Jesus, we were having fun, come on, what happened?"

"You crossed the line." Loki replied shortly.

"Well how the hell am I supposed to not cross the line if I don't know where it is, Mr. Pissy?" Tony growled, irritated. "You know what, it's not because you're some evil frost giant that people don't like you, it's because you're an asshole, plain and simple." Loki's head snapped around and poison green eyes glared at him, fury and something more painful warring in them.

"Damn it, damn it, damn it!" Tony swore, getting up and stomping around. "Always put my foot in my mouth don't I? Say the wrong thing, and then everybody thinks I'm the asshole, and it's true, isn't it? I'm the asshole." He glared at Loki. "Well, go on then, leave, I know you're going to, everybody does when they realize just how screwed up I am." In a fit of temper he threw a wrench at the wall and then sat down heavily, panting with the exertion of his temper tantrum.

After a couple moments a hand placed itself gently on his shoulder and he resisted the urge to shove it away. "We are more alike than I had first thought." Loki said thoughtfully, the ice gone from his voice.

"Is that a bad thing or a good thing?" Tony asked dejectedly.

"It does mean that I understand what you are doing." Loki replied. "You are trying to push me away before I push you away myself, thinking that will lessen the pain of rejection."

"And how do you know that?" Tony demanded, rolling his head back to glare half-heartedly at Loki.

"Because I have used it many times myself."

"Including just now?" Tony guessed. Loki inclined his head slightly. "Look, I get it if you don't want to talk about things, if things make you uncomfortable, but just say it. Because the way you were just acting really does just make you seem like an asshole."

"My apologies." Loki said, sounding sincere. "Will you allow me to stay?"

"Ah, why the hell not, beats talking to myself."

~~~~~~~~~~~~*~~~~~~~~~~~~&~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~(~~~~~~~~~~~~~~*~~~~~~~~~~~~~&~~~~~~~~~

Star: Review plz!


	20. Chapter 20

Star: I own nothing!

Thor had once told Loki that he was incapable of sincerity. While Thor had said it in jest, there were many that believed that it was true. There was a reason Loki was called the Liesmith, after all. Lies were more useful, in Loki's mind, and so much of the time others were correct, he was not sincere, but even he had things that he felt were important enough for sincerity.

Surprisingly, Tony Stark was one of those things. It wasn't only sentimentality that was the reason for this. The fact of the matter was that Tony's workshop had become something of a safe haven for him, somewhere he could avoid the others without confining himself to his quarters. In addition to that he valued the conversations they had, as Stark was probably one of the only mortals whose intelligence he would consider on par with his. It was refreshing, and he was reluctant to give that up over a petty argument.

Therefore, he apologized, sincerely. He would not tell Tony about himself, he wasn't going to go that far with trusting the man, but he would appear humble in order to stay where he was comfortable. It had worked, and Loki was still allowed to frequent the workshop and Tony was now aware that questions about his personal business were not welcome.

He was pleased with the arrangement that he had, and was pleased that he had so far been able to avoid meeting his clone while with Tony. Of course, the Norns seemed to have it in for him, and this time, when he'd stepped out of the elevator, there was his double. It could have been worse, he supposed, it could have been Thor.

"What are you doing here?" He demanded harshly. Neo looked up at him from where he was holding onto to whatever Tony was screwing onto the thing they were working on.

"I'm helping Tony." The clone replied, irritatingly calm.

"We're making a sparring bot, for Steve and Thor." Tony added. "If you can't be polite, you're going to have to leave."

"Why me?" Loki demanded, offended.

"Because you're the one being the problem." Tony answered. "If it was Neo I'd tell him to leave." Dummy rolled up and stole the screw that Tony was about to reach for. "Hey!" Dummy zoomed away, whistling in triumph. "Brat! Get back here before I donate you to a city college!"

Loki snagged Dummy as he rolled past. "You are a pest, aren't you?" He said fondly, petting the claw. "Give it back and I'll help you steal his pens later." He whispered.

"I heard that." Tony grumbled good-naturedly. "Turning my bots against me." Dummy considered Loki for a moment and then dropped the screw in his palm. "Dummy you traitor." Dummy made a whirring sound at Tony and scooted off, going to confer with You and Butterfingers.

Loki brought the screw over to Tony, avoiding looking at his clone. Tony took it, still grumbling to himself and screwed it into what Loki could now tell was an arm. He carefully looked at the rest of the object taking shape and decided it did look like the skeleton of a man, but bulkier.

"Okay, arm is on, and I need to piss before I explode." Tony said, hopping down from his stool and running for the bathroom. Neo pointedly ignored Loki, running his fingertips over the sparring bot skeleton, checking the joints.

"Why are you down here?" Loki demanded harshly. Neo looked up at him and made a face.

"I'm allowed down here too." He said, sounding irritated. "I like helping with Tony's projects. You're not his only friend, you know."

"Friend?" Loki repeated incredulously. "What makes you even think that I would be friends with a mortal?" The clone shrugged his shoulders and muttered something that sounded like 'could have fooled me'. "I don't think I like your attitude."

"Well I definitely don't like your attitude, so we're even." Neo answered.

"You're developing something of a backbone, interesting." Loki commented coolly. "Learning from your precious mortals, are you?" Neo said nothing. "I wonder if you've realized just how different you are from them. I wonder if you realize that you age so much slower than them, and that you will watch them grow old and die long before you ever catch up to them."

He was surprised, and gratified, to see the clone's face darken with anger. "I realize you think I'm rather foolish, but believe it or not, I have thought of those things, I think about them a lot actually." The glare intensified. "It's rather cruel of you to remind someone that the people they love are going to be gone someday and that I'm going to be left alone in this world, an immortal among mortals. How do you think that makes me feel?"

"I'm sure Thor would bring you to Asgard." Loki pointed out. "The oaf certainly seems to like you enough."

"Oh yes, that will go over so well with the locals, now wouldn't it?" Neo's voice was heavy with sarcasm. "I look like you, and they probably won't care that I'm not you, will they?" Neo didn't wait for an answer and kept going. "They don't like you, and whether or not that's fair of them, it's true. So why would I want to go there, where people will talk behind my back and refuse to have anything to do with me? Why would I want to go somewhere where maybe they'd try to kill me, just in case I did turn out to be just like you? No, I'd rather stay here, even if it hurt to stay, because this is my home. Maybe I haven't been in it very long, but Midgard is home, and it's going to stay that way."

"You would choose this place, with all these pathetic insects?" Loki asked, startled.

"Would you describe Tony as an insect?" Neo shot back. "Yeah, I'd choose this place. There are some bad people, sure, but there are lots of good people too."

"And how do you figure that? All I see is mortals finding new and more effective ways of killing each other." Loki protested.

"There are going to be some people like that yes, but there are also always people who do their best to stop bad things from happening, even if it's only in little ways." Neo replied.

"Enlighten me." Loki sneered.

"Well, there's one thing Steve told me about that's really stayed with me. Do you know anything about World War II?" Loki gave him a blank look. "Okay, well during this war certain people were being rounded up and put into camps, which were basically prisons where people were worked to death, or worked almost to death and then put in a room where poison gas was pumped in and killed them."

"Barbaric."

"I guess we can agree on that. These people had done nothing wrong but be in the wrong religion, be the wrong colour, or even love the wrong people, and they were being slaughtered. Now, the people that were doing this had also said if anyone helped them would suffer the same fate, but you know what? Many people did it anyways. They hid entire families, smuggled them into friendlier territory, all while knowing if they were caught it was a slow, painful death for them."

"You're lying, mortals are not so courageous." Loki growled.

"You know how to use the internet, don't you? Look up the Holocaust, or talk to Steve, he was over there at that time, liberated one of the camps." Neo growled back. "I'm not you, which means I'm not a liar."

"So you think."

"So I know." Neo replied stubbornly. "You lie because you want something out of someone, but all I want's a quiet life."

"How boring." Loki said dismissively.

"Really, and just how satisfying has your oh so exciting life been lately?" Neo demanded.

"You are a nuisance." Loki said, unable to find anything else to say. Neo smiled at him, cheekily.

"Oh, and what you were talking about, how all my mortal family would die long before I grow old, may I remind you that Tony is one of those mortals?"

"And why does that matter?" Loki snapped. Neo gave him a look.

"You're upset with me because you think I'm taking Tony away from you, it's the same thing with Thor so don't try to tell me you don't care about Tony." Neo explained. His eyes softened as he looked at Loki. "I don't understand why you think you have to hide yourself. Thor likes you, Tony likes you and I think Tasha might be starting to like you too, so you can't be all that bad, so why do you act like it?"

"Maybe I am all that bad, have you ever considered that?"

"I don't believe that." Neo said stubbornly.

"Your optimism is foolish." Loki said. Neo shrugged his shoulders. "But your arguing skills have improved." He conceded. Neo gave him a narrow-eyed, suspicious look, wondering if Loki was making fun of him. Let him wonder, Loki thought, it was more fun that way.

"Well, if you're going to stick around, can you keep the brat busy?" Tony asked as he came out of the bathroom.

"You do realize I'm just going to teach him better ways to steal from you." Loki pointed out.

"So long as he's not bugging me now, I don't care."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~*~~~~~~~~~~~~~~&~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~(~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~*~~~~~~~~~~~~~&~~~~~~~~

Star: Review plz!


	21. Chapter 21

Star: I own nothing!

Loki didn't know when it became second nature to seek out Tony's shop when he couldn't sleep. It just happened that way and Loki wasn't sure he saw a problem with the arrangement. Tony was a fascinating mortal, at once incredibly clever and amusingly dense. He was amusing to be around and didn't ask pesky questions.

"Hey, what's up Rock of Ages?" Tony grinned as Loki walked into the workshop. "I'm actually almost done here, you wanna watch a movie?"

"So long as it's intelligent." Loki answered, petting Dummy, You and Butterfingers as he made his way over to the work bench. "So, Sarah Jane was a former companion of the Doctor's?"

"Yep, I like her, she's great." Tony grinned.

"Indeed, she was amusing, as was K-9." Loki agreed. "Was it the same actress as the original, I know the old series ran a few decades ago."

"Yeah, I mean a few decades isn't too long, I know we're mortals, but she, well she was, still spry." Tony said. "The actress died not too long ago, so no more Sarah Jane, which sucks because the fiftieth anniversary is coming up."

"Oh." Loki said. "I've been noticing Agent Romanoff smirking whenever someone mentions how cute Rose and the Doctor are together… care to explain?"

"Nope!" Tony responded cheerfully.

"Of course you won't." Loki muttered.

"Come on, telling you ahead just ruins the fun!" Tony declared. "Well, I'm done here, wanna go upstairs?"

"If you like." Loki conceded and followed Tony back to the elevator.

"So, I keep saying we're going to watch Batman, but we never do, guess tonight's as good a night as any." Tony grinned, bouncing over to the television. Loki followed at a more leisurely pace. By the time he sat down on the couch Tony had put in the movie and flumped down on the couch beside Loki.

Ten minutes into the movie Loki was intrigued, his attention riveted. He was so engrossed in the movie that he nearly jumped when Tony scooted closer to him and dropped his head against Loki's bicep. He purposely didn't look at Tony, didn't give any indication he'd noticed. He wanted to see what Tony would do next.

Tony actually nudged closer as the movie went on, cuddling right up against Loki. "You know I've actually proven all these things can be made." Tony commented in a low murmur halfway through the movie.

"That does not surprise me at all." Loki said.

"Yeah, Pepp wouldn't let me actually put the Tumbler into production." Tony laughed. "She always spoils my fun."

"Hmm, pity, it would have been easier to fight you in just a vehicle." Loki mused.

"Yeah, the suit's better, and cooler. Bet I could make Bruce Wayne jealous any day." Tony grinned at Loki. Loki found himself smiling back for some reason.

"I like this Gordon fellow, he's got courage." Loki commented some time later. "You said there's two more after this?"

"Yup. I think I like the second best of all of them, but the last one's pretty damn good too." Tony said, suppressing a yawn, shifting slightly against Loki.

"We shall have to watch them then, as this one is already quite interesting." Loki said vaguely.

"See? Told you you'd like them." Tony said triumphantly.

"You're very arrogant."

"That's rich coming from you, Mr. King of everything." Tony quipped in reply, grinning up at Loki. Loki huffed, but did not snap at Tony; the mortal didn't mean anything nasty by it, he was teasing and Loki couldn't find it in himself to be offended. "Personally I think Alfred is my favorite, he reminds me of JARVIS."

"Indeed, his sarcasm is similar." Loki agreed. "I still like Gordon better. Not sure I like the female though."

"Eh, could do without her." Tony agreed, shrugging his shoulders. He then laughed as Rachel Dawes tasered Doctor Crane in the face. "Though she does have her moments."

"Is that the kind of weapon that Thor's woman's friend used to bring him down?" Loki asked.

"Oh you heard about Darcy, did you? Yup, same thing, pretty damned funny if you ask me." Tony laughed again.

"Oh yes." Loki agreed. He couldn't help but feel a sense of nostalgia; in another time he would have teased Thor unmercifully about being brought down by such a tiny weapon. He shook that thought out of his head, no sense in dwelling on the past.

"That was…. enjoyable." Loki admitted as the movie ended. "I like the little hint at the end of what the next movie will have."

"Yup, Christopher Nolan does the job good." Tony agreed. "You wanna watch the next one?"

"Do what you will, I am going to retire." Loki said, getting up. "Perhaps we can continue tomorrow night."

"I'll hold you to that." Tony said, yawning widely, turning the television on to some late night comedy show. Loki left the room quietly, seeking his own bed.

%&%&%&%

Tony waited until he was certain Loki was out of earshot and turned towards the darkened kitchen. "So how long you been hiding back there, Point Break?" He asked casually. There was an amused snort from behind the kitchen counter and Thor rose up like some beefed up ghost of Christmas past.

"It was not long." He replied, wandering over to the couch and sitting down. "My brother likes you."

"Does he? I guess he does, hard to tell if it's like or if he just sees me as a good way to get away from everyone else down in the workshop." Tony admitted, scratching at his head.

"No, he likes you, I know the signs." Thor chuckled, a little sadly. "He is not usually kind to those that tease him, but he allows it with you and will tease back."

"Huh, never thought about that." Tony said. "But he is the God of Tricks." He reminded Thor.

"He also was allowing you to rest yourself against him." Thor pointed out. "He does not like being touched often."

"Didn't even realize I was doing it, I just do that sort of thing when I'm comfortable." Tony wasn't about to mention the touch-starved days of his youth and the desire for physical contact with people he liked that it had created in him. "So Loki likes me, I suppose it's not the worst thing."

"I wish he shared the sentiment about me still." Thor admitted quietly. "He still refuses to talk to me, I fear he truly does hate me."

"Aw, big guy, I don't think he hates you, you're a hard guy to hate." Tony protested, awkwardly patting Thor on one hugely muscled shoulder.

"Then why…?"

"Look, I don't know enough about your brother to say why he's avoiding you like the plague, but I really doubt he hates you." Tony tried. "Maybe I can talk to him, see what gives, but I don't think that will do any good."

"No, he will resent the prying. Do not try Tony, I would rather he stayed friendly with you, instead of having no one." Thor said.

"Alright, will do big guy." Tony thought for a moment. "Why don't we put on something Disney, always cheers me up." Thor's answering smile was all he needed.


	22. Chapter 22

Star: I own nothing!

They'd gotten relaxed about their 'saving the world' gig. It was painfully obvious now, having had so many victories without any casualties that this had hit them like a sledgehammer. Steve trudged back to his room, feeling drained, not even bothering to take off his uniform before collapsing onto his bed.

"Steve?" Neo's voice asked above him.

"Hi, Neo." Steve said tonelessly. There was a moment of silence and then the bed dipped slightly as Neo sat down.

"What happened?" Neo asked quietly. "I've never seen you like this."

Steve looked up into Neo's worried eyes and sighed heavily. "There was… a casualty." He said slowly. "Now, I've dealt with casualties before, it's a part of war, but… He wasn't in war, he was just trying to get wherever he was going, he had nothing to do with it and then he was dead and none of us could stop that from happening."

"You saw someone die?" Neo asked, sounding horrified.

"A young man, high school age. Our target had hostages, and decided to shoot one of them to show how serious he was. Of course, the Hulk took offense to that, but… we were too late to save him." Steve sat up and gathered Neo into his arms, holding him tightly.

"Steve?" Neo asked uncertainly.

"I thought of you, when that boy was shot. I thought about what if you got hurt, what if you got killed." Steve admitted quietly. "I couldn't deal with that. But the scary part is that you could potentially be a target. Part of me wants to keep you in this tower, safe, but I know that's not fair to you. I know you don't really have an interest in learning magic, but I want you to think about learning, for the sake of being able to defend yourself."

"I'm being taught self-defense." Neo pointed out mulishly.

"Yes, but it's best to use every advantage you have." Steve pressed.

"Yeah, but who's going to teach me? Who would want to?" Neo shrugged his shoulders.

"We can talk to Thor's mother, I don't feel comfortable asking Loki." Steve suggested.

"Neither do I, he'd probably teach me to turn myself into a duck or something." Neo said, curling his lip slightly. Steve huffed a laugh.

"Probably. Promise me though?" He asked. "I don't want to see you hurt because you couldn't defend yourself."

"Okay Steve, okay." Neo agreed, hugging Steve back. Steve let out a shuddering sigh of relief and tightened his hold on Neo, holding him like he was afraid to let go.

%&%&%&%

Bruce went down to Tony's workshop, feeling the other man was probably dealing with what had happened in worse ways than he was. The sounds of breaking glass and cursing seemed to prove him right, but when he stepped inside the workshop he found Tony pouring a rather large bottle of alcohol down the sink. Once it was empty Tony smashed the bottle in the sink, cursing again.

"Well, I have to say I'm actually relieved at seeing you doing this." Bruce commented. Tony whipped around, eyes wild. He sighed and shuddered, gritting his teeth.

"God, I want a drink so bad right now." Tony admitted. "I want it so bad I just couldn't stand the thought of all this booze down here and I wasn't going to use it." He explained. "I haven't wanted a drink this bad since Obie, Bruce."

"Obie… the first big Iron Man mission, yeah?" Bruce clarified. Tony nodded, looking like he was tasting something awful. "He was someone close to you, wasn't he?"

"Practically a father to me, up until the point where he ripped the arc reactor out of my chest." Tony stalked off to a nearby cupboard and took out another bottle of alcohol.

"Are you sure you want to do this?" Bruce asked.

"I've been meaning to get rid of this anyways." Tony explained. "Better I don't have the temptation, I'm not exactly a great person to be around when I'm drunk."

"You want some help?" Bruce asked. "I think smashing something might be good for me too, just not the Other Guy smashing."

"Grab a bottle." Tony replied, smashing his in the sink.

%&%&%&%

Natasha blocked Clint's blow and threw one of her own, landing a solid hit on her partner's bicep. Loss was not new to the former occupant of the Red Room. Loss of children wasn't new, and it was something she had been hardened against, though she still mourned, privately. Her partner, however, was not so hardened, and he was taking it hard.

He'd had the target in his sights before he'd shot the kid and hadn't taken the shot. Natasha knew Clint would blame himself for that, warranted or not. She also knew that his way of dealing with grief was to pound something into the ground, so she'd offered herself up, hoping to tire him out quicker and thus talk some sense into him.

Clint threw another, weaker punch at her. He was wearing out, which was good. This time was about him, and she would allow herself to grieve in private later. She was still Russian at heart after all and they didn't weep about much, at least not where people could see them and not without copious amounts of alcohol.

%&%&%&%

The Tower was oddly quiet, even though the so-called Avengers had returned from their latest mission. Loki padded quietly around, feeling vaguely unnerved by the silence. It was unlike the Avengers, particularly Thor, who proclaimed jubilantly about their heroic acts whenever they'd done something… heroic. Had something happened?

Highly unsettled Loki made another circuit around the living quarters, thinking about going down to Tony's workshop in the hope that someone would tell him what was going on. He did not like not knowing what was going on, it did not bode well for any plans that he had. Not that he had plans at the moment, but it was the principle of the matter.

He paused as he circled the living room, noticing a head of long blonde hair and a pair of heavily muscled shoulders sticking up above the back of the couch. Thor was curiously silent, though his shoulders shook slightly as Loki watched. It wasn't until Thor let out a ragged sob that he realized Thor was actually crying.

It was unusual; Thor wasn't really the sensitive type, and he'd seen battle and death before. His feet moved before his brain could catch up and decide that what he was doing probably wasn't wise. He moved until he was standing in front of Thor, who had his face buried in his hands.

Loki thought to move, to go away, but suddenly Thor's arms shot out, grabbing Loki around the waist and dragging him to Thor. Loki hissed and immediately began to struggle, twisting this way and that to dislodge Thor's grip. Of all the humiliating things to be cuddled like some child's doll!

"Brother, please." The broken plea made Loki pause and look down. Thor looked up at him,, sky-blue eyes bloodshot and swimming with tears. "Please."

"What on earth is the matter with you?" Loki snapped. Thor looked down and buried his face in Loki's shirt, much like a small child might do with their mother.

"He was just a boy." Thor's voice was soft, grieving. "He knew nothing of war, he was not a warrior trained. There was no reason for him to die, but he's dead. There's a boy now that will never grow up, and a family that has to grieve for their son."

"You've seen people die before." Loki reminded him, the words coming out gentler than he meant them to.

"I know, I know." Thor agreed. "But… he didn't have to die, that man didn't have to kill him. Mortals have such short lives anyways, it's sad when they're shortened even further. It should not have happened, brother, we should have been able to save him."

"You cannot save everyone." Loki said. Once, just this once he would allow this.

"I know." Thor said, his voice just above a whisper. "It's just…" Loki relented completely and dropped one hand to rest it on top of Thor's head, gently stroking his blonde locks. Thor tightened his hold on Loki, leaning into the touch. Just this once, Loki told himself, this is all that I will allow myself to give him.


	23. Chapter 23

Star: I own nothing

"You do not have to say yes, Mother." Thor said anxiously. "I know you have your duties…"

"Which I managed just fine with two very active boys to look after, if you recall." Thor's mother replied primly. "In any case I doubt he'll need much teaching, he's a bright boy."

"Aye." Thor agreed, smiling in relief. "He does remind me of my brother in that respect."

"Yes." His mother said, sounding sad. "If only others had seen that cleverness and praised him for it."

"Aye." Thor agreed with a heavy sigh. "I shall go find Neo, he is probably in the workshop with Tony."

His mother nodded her head and Thor headed down to the workshop. When he got there he found Neo and Loki in a rather heated argument. He couldn't tell what it was about, it was far too technical, but it seemed to have to do with things like loading capacity and stress reduction, whatever those were. He cleared his throat and two sets of poison green eyes glared at him.

"I am sorry to interrupt, but my mother is here, Neo. She has agreed to teach you." Thor informed Neo.

"Teach him what?" Loki demanded suspiciously.

"Steve wants me to learn how to use my magic, to defend myself." Neo explained.

"I'm sure that must be hard for you, seeing as you seem to hate magic." Loki hissed. Neo gave him an odd look.

"I don't hate it, it just doesn't interest me." He said calmly. "There you go, making mountains out of molehills."

"What is that supposed to mean?" Loki asked, sounding affronted.

"Means you make big deals out of things that aren't big deals." Neo explained. "I don't use magic because it's not my thing, I want to design buildings, don't really need magic for that, now do I?" Loki inclined his head slightly, a gesture Thor knew meant that Loki was conceding the point.

"Come, Neo, Mother will not wait forever." Thor said.

"Right." Neo walked over to Thor. "We'll have to settle this argument later." He informed Loki.

"Hmph, I'm sure you're glad of the interruption, seeing as you were about to lose." Loki said disdainfully. Neo wrinkled his nose and stuck his tongue out at Loki, but allowed Thor to usher him into the elevator.

"You interrupted a good debate." Neo accused. Thor laughed.

"My apologies. He was not being cruel, was he?"

"Naw, just snippy like he always is to me." Neo shrugged. "Kinda fun to argue with him though. Makes me work to win, like a game."

"And you definitely like games." Thor chortled, ruffling the young boy's hair. The elevator opened and the two of them walked over to where Frigga was waiting.

"I took the liberty of going back to Asgard and finding some books on spellwork for you." Frigga told Neo.

"Thank you, ma'am." Neo said politely, sitting down. "I have no idea what I'm doing."

"Well, that's why I'm here." Frigga replied. Thor decided to take his leave of them then.

%&%&%&%

Loki gazed at the almost finished sparring bot he, Tony and unfortunately Neo had been working on for the last little while. "Needs a paintjob." Tony muttered. "Got any ideas Rock of Ages?"

"Green?" Loki suggested absentmindedly, checking the joints for any weaknesses.

"Aww, but then it'd be like beating up you." Tony protested.

"I'm certain your teammates would be quite happy to do so." Loki pointed out. Tony gave him a look he couldn't quite read.

"Na, not green, not fun enough." Tony said. "What about pink? Just for shits and giggles, you know? Because watching Cap or Point Break beating up a pink robot would be hilarious."

"Admittedly that would be amusing. Perhaps you'll give it some long eyelashes as well?" Loki suggested. Tony threw back his head and roared with laughter. Loki decided he liked being the one to make Tony laugh like that. Tony took a few minutes to get his giggles under control.

"Man, I love the way you think." He said. "Eyelashes it is, a la Wall-e."

"Pardon?"

"Ooh, you haven't seen Wall-e yet, we need to fix that. Come to think of it, you need to watch all the Pixar movies, they are awesome." Loki snorted. "Hey, have I been wrong yet?" Tony asked.

"You have gotten lucky so far." Loki said. "I did very much enjoy last night's episode of Doctor Who, it gave me some interesting ideas."

"Oh god, Weeping Angels." Tony shuddered. "Actually, there's a villain that scares me more than them, but we don't see them until season five and I'm really glad right now that you can't use magic because you'd probably bring statues to life just to mess with us all."

"Indeed." Loki said coolly. Tony looked up from his work, surprised.

"Uh…Oh! Oh… sorry about that, putting my foot in my mouth again, I'm good at that aren't I? Part of the reason Pep and me didn't last long, well that and she was way too stressed out worrying that I was going to die at any given day, because I do that." Tony took a breath. "I mean it probably feels like if I didn't have the armour anymore, it's a part of you, your identity and well I'd be pissed off if people were making jokes about me losing my armour, now wouldn't I?"

"Wouldn't you be more concerned if you lost the arc reactor?" Tony gave him a look.

"I'd be dead, I wouldn't have time to be pissed off." He reminded Loki bluntly. "I think I'm going to name this thing Mrs. Nesbitt."

"What?" Loki asked, confused.

"We are watching Toy Story, right now. JARVIS, bring it up, we can watch down here and avoid the awkwardness upstairs." Before Loki can argue the schematics on Tony's hologram disappeared to be replaced by a title screen in what he now knew was CGI. He sighed, knowing once Tony had an idea in his head there was very little that could shake it out. It was a bit annoying and a bit funny at the same time.

"The toys are alive?" He said incredulously, not five minutes into the movie.

"Why the hell do you think it's called Toy Story?" Tony laughed. "Come on, it's a kid's movie, even they know it's not real."

"Do they?" Loki asked.

"Well, I think every kid has imagined that their toys come to life when they're not looking. It's like believing in Santa Clause or the Tooth Fairy." Tony explained.

"And those are…?"

"Santa Clause brings presents on Christmas for kids and the Tooth Fairy takes kids' teeth and leaves money." Tony said absently.

"I would really like to know where you mortals come up with these things." Loki commented.

"Look it up, it'll be online somewhere." Tony said. "There's actually two sequels to this, second's alright, but the third is just amazing."

"I thought you didn't like sequels to childrens' movies." Loki said.

"There are exceptions." Tony admitted. "I mean when the franchise isn't just trying to milk the cash cow and actually tries to come up with something original and put their hearts into it." Tony stretched and leaned his head against Loki's arm. "It's really cool to see the progression of CGI since Toy Story first came out, it's really detailed now. Toy Story is still great though, did you know it was the first full length film done totally in CGI."

"Tony?" Loki asked.

"Yeah what?"

"Stop talking, I'm trying to watch."


	24. Chapter 24

Star: Due to popular opinion, I'm changing this again.

It was time to change out the arc reactor. Tony had taken one too many hits during the last fight and JARVIS had advised him to replace the thing that was keeping him alive. One of the few things he could agree with JARVIS on, seeing as it was keeping him alive. He sat down at his work bench and took off his shirt.

The elevator opened and he looked up to see Loki walk in. Loki halted, staring at him without his shirt on and an arc reactor in his hand. "Be with you in a sec, just got to change out the ole' bulb." Tony said, twisting the arc reactor in his chest and pulling it out. Loki quietly walked over, a fascinated look on his face.

Tony gasped a couple times as he set the new arc reactor in place, thumping it a couple times to make sure it was in there. "Never get used to that." He commented. Loki didn't answer, still staring at Tony's bare chest. "Like what you see?" Tony asked, winking at Loki.

Loki reached out a long-fingered hand and touched the arc reactor with gentle fingers. Tony swallowed, staring at the way the light of his arc reactor played over Loki's skin, the soft look of interest in his green, green eyes. He inhaled sharply as those long fingers traced around the arc reactor, touching the scars that Tony hated so much.

"You are… an extremely intriguing individual, Tony Stark." Loki murmured. He looked down into Tony's eyes and frowned. "What is it?"

"Huh?" Tony shook his head. He wasn't about to tell Loki he looked absolutely beautiful, he'd probably get chucked across the lab. "Nothing, just thinking is all." He found a shirt and tugged it over the arc reactor.

"You are ashamed of it." Loki said.

"Well, no and yes, I'm proud of the arc reactor, because hello I came up with it in a cave with just scrap metal basically, but it's not exactly pretty." Tony explained. "So yeah, people stare at it and I don't like it when people stare."

"My apologies then." Loki said.

"No, no, it's fine." Tony waved off the apology. "You I don't mind, you're just curious, other people look at it like I'm some kind of Frankenstein's monster."

"Fools then." Loki said. "Wear your scars proudly, they are the marks of a warrior. My people… Thor's people value such things."

"Yeah, but they don't value intelligence." Tony griped. "Strange people."

"Indeed." Loki agreed. "Let us not speak of them anymore."

"Alright, can I say though that they didn't know a great thing when they had it?" Tony said, looking at Loki.

"I will allow it, just this once." Loki replied. He gave Tony a long, considering look. "You are very strange, Tony Stark, more than other mortals."

"Oh yeah, I always knew I was a special snowflake." Tony joked, pulling up schematics for an improved engine for the quinjet. Loki settled down next to him on the bench. Tony's mind was half occupied with the schematic, the other occupied with coming up with and discarding scenarios in which he tried courting Loki, tried kissing Loki and crashed and burned every time.

%&%&%&%&%

Loki was in a foul mood. A snide joke from agent Barton at the breakfast table had reminded him that he was a prisoner, and not even considered dangerous enough to warrant a cell. It chafed at him and he avoided Tony's workshop because of it. He might have damaged something, like Dummy, if he'd gone down, and he wasn't about to do that to Tony.

His bad mood hung over him like a black cloud until finally he went to go find someone to vent his temper on. He found Frigga just leaving after giving Neo one of his lessons. No one else was around; perfect. He stalked over to Neo, who was trying to make fire with magic, a look of annoyed concentration on his face.

"You say you don't want to be me, but you are learning magic. What will you take from me next?" He spat, hoping Neo would rise to the bait. Neo bristled and glared at Loki; good.

"I'm learning magic because Steve wants me to, not because I derive some twisted sort of pleasure from taking over your life, which by the way, sucks." The clone growled. Loki scowled.

"Watch your tone." He warned.

"Or what?" Neo challenged. "Why the hell do you hate me so much?"

"You know why." Loki said.

"Yeah, and it's stupid. I don't want your life, I don't want to be just a copy, I want to be me, and I've said that time and time again, but you don't listen because you think the whole world's against you but it's not." Neo looked frustrated. "You get ideas in your head about people and you stick to them, no matter if you get evidence that says your wrong. You're like that with Thor."

"Oh? Enlighten me." Loki sneered.

"You think he hates you." Neo said bluntly. "I know he doesn't. You don't look, so you don't see that you hurt him every time you brush him off. You refuse to see how hard he's trying."

"I'm a frost giant, he cannot feel anything about me but hatred." Loki said.

"I'm a frost giant too, or did you conveniently forget that while convincing yourself that Thor doesn't love you?" Neo asked. "Look, just because you're born one way doesn't mean that has to define who you are. You are who you choose to be."

"Your optimism offends me."

"Why?" Neo demanded. "Why do I offend you? Okay, you know what, I'm sorry for existing." He said sarcastically. "I'm sorry that I have no control whatsoever on the circumstances of my creation and that I got stuck with the face of a guy that is hated by an entire realm. I'm sorry I can't change my face, even though I'd love to be able to."

"You don't want to be tainted by me." Loki growled.

"I don't want to be compared with you all the time. I don't want that hanging over me. Like you said before I'm going to be alive long after the rest of the Avengers are dead. I can't go to Asgard because people will take one look at me and immediately either not want anything to do with me or they'll just try to kill me." Neo ranted. "You talk about being in Thor's shadow, while I'm in yours, and I want out."

"So you hate me just like the rest of them then." Neo banged his head on the coffee table a couple of times.

"No, that's not what I'm saying at all. Sometimes I kind of like you to be honest, mostly when we're down in Tony's shop and debating about something." Neo explained. "Tony doesn't hate you, Tony quite likes you in fact." He added. "So saying everyone hates you is just another lie."

"You think you're quite wise, don't you?"

"No, I just see things simpler." Neo shrugged. "Makes life easier if you're not constantly looking for peoples' ulterior motives. You just wind up finding them where they aren't when you do that."

"You're saying I'm far too suspicious of people." Loki growled.

"Exactly." Neo smiled brightly. "Not everyone is as full of plans and sneakiness as you are."

"You're still foolish to believe that Thor would see me as anything but a monster." Neo sighed heavily.

"Okay, you're going to keep going back to this, aren't you?" He said. "Jeez, you're like a broken record." He went to the television and found a movie. "You need to watch this, and don't give me grief over the fact that it's a kid's movie."

Loki snorted in derision. "You attempt to sway me with a movie?"

"Stories teach us." Neo replied, putting the movie in. "And kids' movies teach us the most important lessons I think." Neo sat down on the couch. "Just… watch, okay? No snarkiness, no anger, just watch."

"Fine." Loki sighed, rolling his eyes. He was certain that this was going to be a laughable attempt on Neo's part and he smirked as the movie got going, opening up on what looked like a trial in outer space.

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Star: This is the last time I change it, I swear. I got a little ahead of myself (I blame lack of sleep but that's just me). Anyways, hopefully this is better.


	25. Chapter 25

Star: I own nothing!

Loki discreetly rubbed at his eyes as the movie ended. He wasn't crying, he hadn't been crying, there had just been something in his eyes. There wasn't anything about a story about a destructive blue alien that found a family anyways that could make him cry. A hand touched his shoulder and he jerked away from it.

"It's okay. When I first watched it, pretty much everyone cried at some point." Neo assured him. "No one would make fun of you for getting upset."

"It does not upset me, it's a foolish children's story." Loki growled. "It means nothing."

"It means everything and you know it." Neo insisted stubbornly.

"It doesn't work like that in the real world." Loki said impatiently. "In real life that alien would have been destroyed."

"You don't know that." Neo replied. "Pretty much I am Stitch, and I wasn't destroyed."

"It matters not, I am a frost giant, which means I am a monster, why should I fight that?" Loki demanded.

"Look, if all that mattered was what we are, then I wouldn't be here. I'd be dead, or in some cell somewhere or shipped off to Asgard to make sure I can't make trouble." Neo said, waving his hands around in exasperation. "Instead I'm here, and I have a family, and they love me for me, just like Thor loves you for you."

"Why would Thor want me, if he has you, the perfect, obedient, good little brother?" Loki spat out. Neo looked at him, shaking his head.

"You don't get it." He sighed. "I'm not you, that's why. I'm not the brother he's grown up with, that he can joke with, that plays pranks on him, that gets him in and out of trouble all the time. I'm a kid to him, but you're his brother, his equal." Loki scoffed. "You are, ask him yourself, talk to him. He wants to talk to you, you know, he wants to know that you don't hate him, because he thinks you do, and that makes him very sad."

"You know nothing of what Thor feels for me." Loki growled.

"I do too." Neo insisted. "You're just scared."

"I am not scared!" Loki nearly shouted. "What have I to be afraid of?" He demanded.

"That you're actually right." Neo said quietly. The words sent a stab of icy terror through Loki's gut. "You're afraid to find out that he really does hate you, so you convince yourself that he does and avoid him at all costs, because you think it will hurt less. It doesn't, does it?"

Loki stared at the wall, stone-faced, refusing to reply. He heard Neo sigh again. "Why do I even bother, you're so stubborn, but I guess that's why you and Tony get along." He still said nothing. "The big mistake that you're making is thinking that family is all about blood. Family is the people you come home to, the people you trust and can be yourself with, the people that love you and you love in return."

"Why do you even care what I do?" Loki demanded.

"Something I learned from Steve. Kindness is better than cruelty and helping people, no matter who they are, is the mark of a true hero." Neo shrugged. "I look up to Steve, I want to be like him, maybe be a superhero someday. Besides, you're not as bad as you want us all to think and Thor's hurting too, so I want to help him."

"You're nosy." Loki accused.

"Look where I came from." Neo pointed out. "And quit trying to change the subject!"

"Stop trying to convince me of something that's not true then!" Loki countered.

"You don't know it's not true, how do you know it's not true if you won't talk to him." Neo responded.

"You're nothing but an idiotic child who has no idea how the world really works. I know that Thor hates me, why should I-"

"Just try!" Neo shouted. Loki looked at him in shock. "You never actually know something until you try it, so try."

"I will not." Loki said, standing up and heading for the elevator.

"Then you're a coward." Loki flinched slightly at the words, but did not turn. He punched the button that would bring him down to Tony's workshop and tried to calm his racing heart. Dummy wheeled up to him as soon as he stepped out of the elevator and he smiled slightly at the excited robot. Dummy offered him a ball and Loki threw it willingly, smiling a little wider as Dummy wheeled after it, chirping in delight.

"You missed the tests for Mrs. Nesbitt." Tony said gleefully from the workbench.

"Oh, did I?" Loki asked vaguely. Tony gave him a sharp look.

"What's got you down?" He asked.

"Nothing, I'm fine." Loki lied, smiling. He was good at faking happiness. Tony narrowed his eyes at him though. Right, Tony was good at faking things too so it was likely he could see past his façade. "It's nothing that you need to be concerned about." Loki amended.

"If you're sure…" Tony said. "Anyways, you missed the grand unveiling, should have heard Thor laugh at the eyelashes, Steve was just confused and that was even funnier."

"How did it perform?" Loki asked, sliding onto a stool next to Tony. Tony grinned and began to talk, almost babbling about how well the bot had performed. Loki enjoyed seeing Tony like this, the mortal seemed to light up whenever he talked about something he was pleased about and his wild gesturing was always a source of amusement for Loki.

He was becoming all too fond of Tony, Loki thought to himself. For the life of him he could not think why that was a bad thing though. Tony offered him a safe haven, a place where he was able to feel like he was actually wanted. There was still that nagging thought in his mind that he should avoid getting too close, just in case.

Too late, he thought to himself, listening to Tony praise his own genius with amusement. He was already too close. The thought would have made him uneasy before all this, but it did not now. How much had he changed in the short while he'd been here? How much of that was Tony's doing?

He wondered idly if Tony had known what he was doing when he let Loki into his workshop that first time. Probably not, Loki thought to himself, Tony was rather oblivious when it came to people. They were similar in that they had not had many friends in childhood because of their abilities; Tony's genius, and Loki's magic. Loki had learned to manipulate people for his own amusement, while Tony had just retreated into the world of machines, deeming it far less confusing.

"Hey, hey, you're not even paying attention to me." Tony complained, bringing Loki out of his thoughts.

"Perhaps you're not as interesting as you think you are." Loki suggested teasingly. Tony pouted at him and Loki let out an amused chuckle.

"Cruel, cruel you are." Tony said dramatically. "After all I've done for you, letting you use my workshop to hide from your clingy brother, taking you in like an orphaned chick…"

"Your ego is showing." Loki informed him.

"Ha, this coming from the king of ego-trips, Mr. Tried to take over the world." Tony teased back. Weeks ago this reminder would have made him bristle, but Loki just snorted now.

"Admittedly not one of my finest moments." He said loftily.

"Not something you'd try again?" Tony asked. "Or is that off limits?" He added quickly.

"I don't relish the idea of becoming the Hulk's play thing again." Loki deadpanned. Tony laughed at that. Tony's laugh was one of Loki's favourite things to hear, simply because it was so genuine and without a trace of mockery in it. He did not hear laughs that often, not since Thor.

"Yeah, he's a bit much, even if he's on your side." Tony said. "I've had a couple times where even in the suit I thought he was going to crush me. Brucey though is the sweetest guy alive. Makes you wonder, doesn't it?"

"Not particularly." Loki shrugged. "We all have the faces we present to the world and those that we hide inside."

"Heh, I guess so." Tony agreed. "Now, there were a couple places on Mrs. Nesbitt where I think we need to do some more fortifications…"

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Star: Review plz!


	26. Chapter 26

Star: I own nothing!

"Pepper, how do you woo someone?"

A heavy sigh came through the speaker of the phone. **"Tony…"**

"This is a perfectly serious question, I'm being serious right now." Tony protested, fiddling with the Iron Man glove. Pepper snorted through the phone. "I am! I am being the most serious I have ever been, how do I prove it."

"**Tony, we both know that you don't do relationships very well." **Pepper said kindly. Tony winced.

"Low blow Pepp, low blow." He joked. "No but seriously…"

"**Seriously? You suck at romantic gestures, Tony." **Pepper said and then she sighed. **"If you're really serious about this…" **

"Yes, yes, totally serious." Tony stressed. "Please Pepp, I have no idea what I'm doing."

"**You need to do special things for them, to make them feel like they're special." **Pepper answered.

"That's all the advice you can give me?" Tony asked. "Come on, Pepper."

"**Every person is different Tony, you're going to have to figure out what they like, you have to pay attention to them, and that's not really one of your strong points." **

"Ouch Pepp, wound me some more." Tony complained. Pepper was right though, he had a habit of not paying attention to things. Hadn't he completely forgotten that Pepper was allergic to strawberries?

"**I've got to go Tony, good luck with whoever it is." **

"Thanks Pepp." Tony said, just before the connection dropped. "Well, fuck." Dummy rolled over, chirping inquisitively at Tony. "I don't think you're going to be a lot of help for me Dummy, unless you have some kind of magical gift that Loki would love." Tony tapped his chin thoughtfully and then called up his holographic display. "JARVIS, pull up Loki's internet history for me, will you?"

**Yes sir. **Tony scrolled through Loki's internet history, feeling a little as though he was reading Loki's diary. It was for a good cause though and in any case anyone could see anyone's browsing history if they knew how. Slowly an idea took form, it would take time, and some money, but Tony had plenty of each.

%&%&%&%

Steve was worried about Neo. Since he'd started his magic lessons he'd become withdrawn and surly. He thought it might have something to do with the fact that Neo really wasn't picking up the magic that well. He was used to Neo's cheerfulness though, and this made him anxious.

"He's growing into a teenager." Clint told him with a laugh. "It had to happen eventually."

"I don't like it." Steve complained. Clint shrugged.

"No one does." The archer replied, unhelpfully.

"What do I do about it?" Steve asked.

"You're asking me?" Clint said, disbelievingly. "I don't know anything about kids. Just leave him alone, he might just snap out of it on his own."

Steve wasn't so sure about that. Neo was stubborn, about everything. If he was hanging onto some emotion it was likely that he'd hang onto it for the foreseeable future. He needed to get to the bottom of why Neo was acting so strange.

He found Neo in his room, lying down on his bed, his face shoved into his pillow. He'd just had another lesson from Frigga, and it was clear he was feeling frustrated. He sat down on the bed and put a hand on Neo's back, making him jerk.

"Go away." Neo mumbled into the pillow.

"Neo…" Steve said sternly. Neo turned his head to regard him. Steve gave him his best disappointed look.

"Sorry." He mumbled, looking away.

"What's wrong?" Steve asked.

"Nothing." Neo muttered.

"Don't give me that." Steve said firmly. "You've been acting odd for days, sullen and snappish."

"It's fine."

"Clearly it's not." Steve countered. Neo said nothing. "Neo, I'm worried about you." He added gently. "Please, let me help."

"You'll think it's stupid, _I _think it's stupid." Neo mumbled, sitting up.

"I won't think it's stupid, I promise." Steve said, wrapping an arm around Neo's shoulders and pulling him close. "You know you can trust me, right?"

Neo nodded his head. "It's about the magic…" He started.

"I thought that might be it." Steve nodded.

"It's just… I should be good at it, because of… you know." Neo said, looking frustrated. "But I kind of don't want to be good at it either."

"What do you mean?" Steve asked.

"This is where it gets stupid." Neo said, ducking his head in shame. "I keep feeling like if I do good at magic people will look at me different. I feel like if I do good with magic people will start comparing me to _him_ and wondering if I am like him after all."

"Neo, you know none of us would do that." Steve said gently.

"I know that, and that's the worst part, is that I know I'm being stupid, but I can't stop thinking it and it's driving me mad." Neo looked up at Steve. "I'm stupid, aren't I?"

"No, no you're not." Steve said, gathering Neo up into his arms in a tight hug. "You're human."

"That's not actually true…" Neo pointed out.

"I think you know what I mean." Steve said. "You have emotions, you are allowed to be irrational."

"I hate the way it makes me feel though." Neo said. "I mean I know better, but I still can't help but feel like I do."

"Trust me, we all have that." Steve said. "I have days where I think all that's good about me is the super soldier serum, that if I didn't have that, I wouldn't be anything."

"No." Neo gasped.

"It happens. But then I remember my friends, how they like me for me, not just the serum. I probably wouldn't be Captain America anymore, but Captain America isn't all of who I am." Steve said. "Just remember that you have people who love you here, no matter what."

"No matter what?" Neo repeated. "Even if I'm acting out? Even if I break stuff or am rude or mean?"

"Even then." Steve said, hugging Neo tighter. Neo hugged him back. "You're ours, our kid, and we don't give up on family."

"Family means no one gets left behind." Neo quoted quietly. "I try so hard to be good all the time, but it wears me out."

"Stop trying then." Steve insisted. "You don't have to be perfect. You're a child, even if you don't look it. You're allowed to make mistakes, you're allowed to disobey and talk back. I won't love you any less for it."

"Steve?" Neo asked after a couple minutes.

"Yeah Neo?"

"Um, I had a question, and you can say no if you want, you don't have to say yes…" Neo stuttered out.

"What is it, Neo?"

"Can I call you Dad?" Neo blurted out, blushing afterwards. Steve shook his head, wondering if he'd heard right.

"You want to call me Dad?" He repeated, stunned.

"You don't have to say yes." Neo said quietly. "If you don't want to…"

"I want to, I was just surprised is all." Steve explained. "Why don't we make it official though?" Neo cocked his head at Steve, clearly not understanding. "Why don't I officially adopt you? Neo Rogers, has a nice ring to it, don't you think?"

"You want to adopt me? You really do?" Neo asked in disbelief.

"I really, really do." Steve promised. Neo hugged him tightly and Steve heard him let out a sniffle. Steve hugged him back, smiling softly.

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Star: Review plz!


	27. Chapter 27

Star: I own nothing!

Tony was attempting to be sneaky. It would have been laughable, really, but it was all too clear that he was being sneaky because of Loki, and that frustrated Loki. It frustrated him because none of his tactics for wheedling information out of people were working on Tony. Apparently Tony had spent enough time around him to understand his tactics and avoid them. That was annoying, but also somewhat impressive as well.

He stepped into the workshop, giving Dummy a cursory pat as he walked inside. As was usual for the past couple of weeks Tony got rid of whatever he was working on his display and grinned at him, trying to look innocent and failing miserably. Loki snorted and sat down next to Tony. There was a tablet like what Neo played with sitting on the work bench and Loki eyed it curiously.

"That's for you." Tony said. He was trying to sound casual, but the way he bounced in place told Loki he was very excited. Loki took the tablet and turned it on. A program came up immediately with several different options that looked to be the names of museums? He tapped one icon and a virtual simulation of the Museum of Natural History came up. Loki settled down in fascination, seeing that he could go through all the exhibits and even tap on them to get more information.

"Tony…" He said, for once at a loss for words.

"I know it's not as good as the real thing, but this is the next best thing for you, right?" Tony said, grinning wildly. "It's cool because it will update with new exhibits when the museums get them, and I'm in negotiations with more museums so you'll get more things to see soon. It's pretty cool, isn't it?"

"Tony… why?" Loki asked.

"You can't get out and you like museums, I saw your search history and I thought if you couldn't get to the museums, I'd bring them to you." Tony explained quickly.

"Yes, Tony, but why do this for me? Why put all this effort out when you could be working on something important?" Loki persisted, trying to understand.

"You are important." Tony replied. Loki stared at him. "I wouldn't have done it if I didn't find you important, if I didn't think it was worth it. I like making things for people that I care about."

"And I count in that?" Loki asked. He knew the answer, but he wanted to hear it.

"Of course you do, why the hell wouldn't you?!" Tony demanded, throwing up his hands. "You're the person I'm with for most of the day, you're the one I watch movies with late at night when we both should be sleeping, you're the one who helps me with all my harebrained schemes." Loki laughed, Tony was rather cute when he was ranting. "You're laughing at me." Tony whined. "Give me back that tablet if you're going to be like that."

"I'm not laughing at you, I'm laughing at your reaction." Loki said, holding the tablet out of reach. "I'm very grateful for this." He said sincerely. "It's wonderful."

"It'd better be." Tony muttered. "Spent a lot of time on that, you know."

"I'm sure you did." Loki teased. "Does it do anything other than the museum tours?" He asked.

"Ooh, Mr. Greedy are we?" Tony teased back. "Actually it does all the things that a normal tablet can do. It's got internet, games, you can even download books onto it, though I know you prefer an actual book."

"You do?" Loki asked.

"Of course, I pay attention sometimes."

"Not often." Loki chuckled. Tony gave him a dirty look. "It's endearing." He insisted.

"Oh, you think I'm cute." Tony said, grinning hugely at Loki. Loki rolled his eyes.

"No, I think you're exasperating." He replied. Tony pouted and he grinned.

"You just can't appreciate good humour." Tony said loftily.

"Is that what that is?" Loki asked drily. Tony chuckled.

**Sorry to interrupt this oh so intelligent debate. **JARVIS cut in.

"Why did I make an AI that could sass me?" Tony wondered aloud. "What is it, JARVIS?"

**Agent Barton has told me to inform you that it is November the fifth and that it is necessary to watch V for Vendetta. He said that he'd drag you out of the workshop himself if you didn't comply. **

"Agent Barton is a pain in the ass, but V for Vendetta is awesome." Tony conceded. "Come on, let's go before he starts to try and break into this place."

"That would be unfortunate." Loki agreed. "Will I enjoy this movie?"

"Yeah, I think it's right up your alley." Tony said. Loki got up, turning off the tablet and holding it against his chest. Tony had made it specifically for him, and no one else. The thought made him feel warm inside, an unfamiliar sensation that was both welcome and a little bit terrifying. Had he ever felt like this before?

"I wouldn't play with that while the movie's going, you might get lynched." Tony warned.

"Oh, that would be a tragedy, wouldn't it?" Loki teased.

"Everybody's a comedian, aren't they?" Tony sighed dramatically, stepping into the elevator with Loki. Everyone else was already waiting by the time they got up. The two of them found a spot on one of the couches sitting next to each other and the movie was started.

Tony had his arm slung over the back of the couch, brushing against the back of Loki's head. Sometime during the first half hour of the movie Loki felt that hand move so that Tony's arm was slung around his shoulders. Loki allowed it, curious as to what Tony was doing and paying far more attention to the movie than the idiosyncrasies of one mortal.

It wasn't until after Evey had gone to live with Gordon that Tony leaned his head against Loki's shoulder, shifting so that he was pressed up against Loki. Again, Loki ignored it. Tony did that all the time and he'd never had a problem with it before. It hadn't made his heartbeat quicken like it did now though.

The scene where Evey found Valerie's note and they found out about her life took Loki by surprise in that it evoked powerful feelings of sorrow in him. Judging by the others he wasn't the only one. As Valerie's tale drew to a close Loki felt Tony's thumb stroke at the skin of his neck. He jerked slightly, but did not try to pull away; he was too busy fighting back tears.

It felt nice though, so he let Tony keep going, having an idea of what this was all about. A myriad of reasons why he should discourage Tony, push him away, flitted through his mind. By the time the movie was over Loki knew what he was going to do.

Everyone else slowly trickled out of the room, all having other things that needed to be done. Tony stretched and nestled against Loki again, switching the television onto some cartoon program. "So what did you think?"

"This will probably remain one of my favourite movies." Loki said. "I enjoyed the use of foreshadowing, parallels and symbolism throughout the movie, the thought that everything is connected in a way."

"Yeah, it's pretty neat to go through and see all that stuff. I like when the inspector's talking about the patterns he was seeing and V was setting up that domino thing, it was a really powerful image." Tony said, bumping his head against Loki's shoulder.

"I enjoyed the last scene, with everyone in the crowd, even those who had died, the symbolism was well done." Loki turned to look at Tony. "Although I could have done without being distracted." Tony gave him a shameless grin.

"I don't know what you're talking about." He said glibly.

"Oh, I think you do." Loki replied. "Out with it, what was that all about?"

"You can't figure it out yourself?" Tony asked.

"I have an idea, though I think you're out of your mind." Loki replied.

"You've known me for how long and you think I'm just now losing my mind?" Tony pointed out. "If this isn't something you want to try it's fine, nothing says you have to, the tablet's a gift, it's not a contract or anything and we can go back to being buddies and hanging out in the workshop-"

"Tony, shut up." Loki interrupted.

"Yeah, shut up, that's a good idea. Fuck, I'm so bad at this shit, I shouldn't even try, look what happened with Pepper-"

"Tony, I accept." Loki interrupted again.

"Okay, that's okay, I figured… wait, what?" Tony blinked owlishly at him. "Did you just say what I think you said?"

"Don't make me say it again, this is going against my every instinct as it is." Loki said.

"Then why are you doing it?" Tony questioned.

"Because you have a remarkable ability to get under my skin and have me enjoy it." Loki said. Tony shifted around to face him, looking into his eyes. "You're a remarkable man, Tony Stark, and I think I'd like to keep you." Tony smiled at that.

"Good, because I want to keep you too."

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Star: Review plz!


	28. Chapter 28

Star: Alright, so some minor spoilers for season four of Doctor Who in this chapter, for those who haven't seen it. I own nothing!

"It occurs to me that this idea might have repercussions for you." Loki murmured. Tony looked up from his work, pulling his safety goggles off to get a better look at Loki.

"What do you mean?" He asked, baffled.

"I'm talking about the rest of your Avengers." Loki said, sounding mildly exasperated. "Honestly Tony, do you not think of these things?"

"Not really." Tony shrugged his shoulders. "What about the Avengers?"

"I'm talking about their reaction to our relationship, unless you mean to keep it a secret." It was clear from Loki's tone that keeping it a secret would make him very angry.

"Why would I want to keep it a secret?" Tony asked with a grin. "And as for them, the fuck if I care what they think. I'm a big boy, if they have a problem with it, too bad."

"You would set them at odds with you." Loki pointed out.

"I wouldn't do anything, that's all on them." Tony retorted. "Sure, I know they're going to be pissed off and probably think I'm being an idiot, but I am nothing but good at convincing people that I'm okay, so it should be fine."

"Should be." Loki repeated sceptically. "This is not one of your board meetings where the people only care about their assets, these people are concerned about your wellbeing."

"Which is why it should be easier, so long as you're up for a little PDA." Tony grinned, wiggling his eyebrows at Loki. Loki looked blank. "Kissing and touching and holding hands and shit in public."

"I should hope not shitting in public." Loki teased. "I want to parade you in front of everyone, mark you as mine, do you understand that?" The growl in Loki's voice as he said that sent a delicious shiver down Tony's spine.

"You have no idea how hot you sound when you do that." He said. "God, you're going to kill me with your sexiness, aren't you?"

"There's one solution to that." Loki purred, moving to press himself against Tony. Tony swallowed thickly.

"Not right now." He blurted out. Loki drew back, looking offended. "It's not that I don't want to, it's just that in the past sex has always screwed things up."

"Enlighten me." Loki said, raising an eyebrow.

"None of the people I took to bed right away ever stayed." Tony said. "Not even Pepper, we were in bed together not long after we started dating and then we were done."

"And you think that has something to do with not having a relationship?" Loki asked.

"All I'm saying is that I don't have a good track record with keeping relationships and that I don't want to screw this up so we should just take it slow, as much as that pains me to say." Tony explained quickly. "Because god do I want in your pants."

Loki grinned in a predatory manner. "Well, it will be more fun to tease you until you give in I think. Where's the fun in you giving into me right away?" He said wickedly.

"Wow, I'm going to be taking a lot of cold showers, aren't I?" Tony said.

"That's if you can resist me." Loki murmured, brushing a finger against Tony's lips. Yeah, this was going to be torture, but it was going to be good torture.

"Oh, hey, we're going to be watching the Stolen Earth and Journey's End tonight!" Tony realized excitedly. "Get your tissues ready, because if you thought Doomsday was bad, oh boy are you in for it now." Loki raised an eyebrow, a silent 'challenge accepted'.

"Is something going to happen to Donna?" Loki asked. Donna had quickly become Loki's favourite companion, thanks to her no-nonsense, snarky attitude.

"Hey, I can't tell you that." Tony protested. Loki huffed and shook his head, but smiled at Tony anyways.

"So when do you want to let them know?" He asked. "I like having a plan in place."

"And I don't." Tony said glibly. "Let's just let it flow and when the time is right we'll know."

"That's a terrible plan." Loki chided.

"Says you." Tony said, poking his tongue out at Loki. Loki rolled his eyes in exasperation.

"You are lucky I like you so much." The God of Mischief stated.

"I'm probably also lucky you can't turn me into something." Tony quipped.

"That too." Loki said absentmindedly. The two of them worked companionably for a few hours, exchanging small touches and caresses as they worked. Finally they were called up for Doctor Who. Tony flopped down next to Loki on the couch, immediately resting his head on his shoulder, not bothering to be subtle about it at all.

Loki's attention was completely taken up by the show. As much as he hated to admit liking anything Midgardian, he'd fallen in love with the show and the characters. If Tony had to guess he thought that Loki perhaps identified with the Doctor in some way, maybe now more so, after all, Loki was technically immortal. Sure, he was mortal now, but how long would that last, and then Loki would have to watch him grow old, if they lasted that long anyways, Tony was getting a little ahead of himself.

He loved watching the reactions to this part of the series, because there were so many 'fuck yeah' moments in the Stolen Earth, with the companions getting to be badass, and then it ended on such a nasty cliffhanger.

"Fuck no!" Clint yelled at the television as the credits started rolling. "Iron Ass, if you don't get the next episode going right now, I'm shoving an arrow up your ass."

"Patience, grasshopper." Tony chided, getting the remote and switching the episode. Clint grumbled something, but settled down as Journey's End started up.

"It's about to get worse, isn't it?" Loki murmured in his ear. Tony turned to grin at him.

"What makes you think that?"

"You've got that wicked look I adore on your face." Loki whispered in reply.

"Shh, just watch." Tony admonished, turning back to the episode. He could see people relaxing after the Doctor failed to regenerate and thought to himself that they were in for a rude awakening very soon.

He felt Loki stiffen against him when Donna was trapped in the TARDIS, and felt as well, amazingly, an angry growl rumble in his chest. He patted Loki's thigh, reassuring him that Donna would be alright, for the moment.

"Wait, fucking hell, what?" Clint yelped when the meta-crisis Doctor emerged.

"It's Doctor Who, there is no logic, now shut up." Natasha said. Clint wisely shut up, and got the explanation for the second Doctor. Everything was going great, they had the Daleks on the run, bringing the planets home and everything was happy. Judging by Loki's stiffening, he knew that something big was about to happen. Well, there was still about ten minutes left of the episode, with everything seeming like it was resolved.

The silence seemed to gain a new dimension as Rose was left in the other universe. Someone was sniffling already. Loki started shaking his head in denial as Donna had to have her memories of the Doctor erased and Tony was sure he had tears in his eyes.

"It's not fair." Loki said when the episode was over. "Why does he have to wind up alone every single time?" He demanded angrily. Tony looked at him. "Hasn't he suffered enough? And Donna, what about her? She loses all that, knowing that she was in fact someone special, instead of just some temp from Cheswick. I'd like to find the people running this show and-"

Tony kissed him, stunning him into silence. "You're adorable when you're ranting about fictional characters." He informed a rapidly blinking Loki.

"And you're insufferable." Loki growled, leaning in to kiss Tony back in revenge.

In the silence that followed Natasha turned to Bruce and said "You owe me ten bucks."


	29. Chapter 29

Star: I own nothing

"Tony?" Loki heard Steve ask quietly. "What's going on?"

"Isn't that obvious?" Loki asked tartly.

"Relax, they're in shock, let them have stupid questions." Tony said, rubbing his back. "And why the hell are you placing bets on me Romanoff?"

"Because you're way too easy." Natasha replied, a small smirk curling up her lips. "You're not exactly subtle you know."

"Brucie, how could you try and make money off me, I thought we were bros." Tony whined.

"Got to have some fun somehow." Banner said, shrugging his shoulders.

"Tash, are you okay with this?" Barton demanded, staring at the two of them.

"Stark seems to be good for him." Natasha replied, shrugging her shoulders. "It's no worse than some of the things that I've seen Stark do."

"Gee, you had to bring that up, I was dying!" Tony sighed. Natasha just raised an eyebrow at him. Loki's opinion of her went up a couple notches.

"But… when?" Steve managed to get out.

"Just today, actually." Loki answered. "Tony's attempts at courting are quite cute."

"Hey!" Tony protested, so Loki kissed his forehead.

"Absolutely adorable." He teased.

"I feel like I should be averting my eyes or something." Neo muttered. Loki looked at him. "I'm going to get a supersoaker and dowse you both if you start making out."

"You're such a child." Loki said, rolling his eyes.

"Oh, now you're getting it." Neo said, sticking out his tongue at Loki. "You're nicer when you're around Tony, so Tony, please keep him."

"Wasn't planning on doing anything else you little imp." Tony said. "How many people actually saw this coming?" Banner, Natasha, Neo and Thor raised their hands. Loki scoffed at Thor.

"I am not as oblivious as you like to think sometimes, brother." Thor said, sounding hurt. Loki purposely didn't look at Neo, sure the clone was giving him a knowing look. "Don't play with his heart, brother, he is a good man."

"When I want relationship advice from an oaf, I'll ask for it." Loki snapped. Thor frowned, looking like a kicked dog. How Loki hated that expression, and he hated himself for having caused it. "I thought a brother's job was to threaten the other man?" He added, cursing himself for showing some compassion to Thor. Thor brightened.

"The man of Iron knows full well what I am capable of should he harm you."

"Yeah, no thanks, I like my dick where it is." Tony said.

"So do I." Loki agreed. Neo made a gagging noise. "Hush child, mind your elders and betters."

"Elders, yes, betters I'm not so sure about." Neo quipped.

"I'm not sure if I like you better with an attitude." Loki mused.

"Blame Tony." Natasha and Banner said together.

"Why is it always my fault?" Tony asked.

"Because it usually is." Natasha said in reply. Tony pouted.

"They have a point." Loki laughed.

"Oh, now you're against me, fine, no more kisses for you."

"And yet I'm the child?" Neo said. "Dad, you okay?" Loki looked up to see who he was talking to. Neo was tugging on Steve's arm, who still looked like he was trying to process what was going on.

"Dad? When did this happen?" Tony asked.

"Steve wants to adopt me, and I asked if I could call him Dad." Neo explained. "I'm going to be Neo Rogers soon."

"Well, congrats, kiddo." Tony said. Loki wasn't sure how he felt about this. He felt his own adoption was a farce, a cruel joke, but Neo seemed to be genuinely loved by Captain Rogers and it made him wonder.

"Let's let them argue about this amongst themselves, shall we?" He suggested to Tony.

"Yeah, okay." Tony agreed. "We'll be down in the workshop."

"Make sure you tell JARVIS to restrict access." Natasha said slyly.

"You have a dirty mind, Agent Romanoff, I think I like it." Tony said, dragging Loki to the elevator. The argument between Barton and Natasha started before the doors even closed. "Whew, glad we got out of there. Hopefully Neo can explain things to Steve, kid's smart."

"Too smart, sometimes." Loki said frankly.

"You alright?" Tony asked, looking at him. "You sound a little…off. Is it the adoption thing?" Loki jerked involuntarily. "Sorry, sorry, sore subject, I won't bring it up again."

"No, no, I'm just… perhaps I need to be honest, for once." Loki hated doing this, baring his soul for another, but he needed to understand, and maybe Tony could help him. "Knowing I was adopted made everything make sense for me. Why my father never looked at me like he looked at Thor, why my accomplishments were never met with praise, why I could never have been king. I was just something to be used, I was never truly his son."

"Okay, so what does this have to do with what's going on with Neo?" Tony asked.

"Sometimes you are very dense Tony." Loki sighed. "With Neo, it's very clear that Steve loves him and it…"

"It challenges what you think of adoption." Tony guessed.

"In a sense. It's also that Neo is my clone and yet he has been wholly accepted." Loki said.

"Hey, I accepted you, I'm pretty Natasha's accepted you and Neo likes poking at you." Tony reminded him. "You're not some monster."

"Tell that to Odin." Loki scoffed.

"Well, he's wrong." Tony asserted. "The most wrong person in the universe and if he can't see how great you are, well, he doesn't deserve to call you his son."

"Not the other way around?"

"No way. God, Asgardians sound like the stupid jocks who thought they were the greatest thing in high school and then wound up flipping burgers for the rest of their lives." Tony joked. "You're the one with the brains, it really should have been you on the throne. I mean Thor's great, how can you not love the guy, but he's not exactly someone I'd want in politics."

"No." Loki agreed with a slight chuckle. "It really should have been me." He said darkly.

"You know what, forget them, if they couldn't see how great you are, don't waste your time. Do something mindblowing to show them just how great they are… just don't try to take over a planet." Tony added quickly.

"No, that was a foolish thing. I would have simply shown Odin that I really was a monster, instead of the victor that I wanted to be." Loki sighed. "It seems like everything I do just backfires on me."

"Aww, come here." Tony reached out and hugged him. "You are important, okay? You're important to me and this can be your family if you let it."

"Tony you are being unbelievably sappy right now." Loki protested.

"Hey, you started it." Tony said, grinning up at him.

"Enough talking." Loki ordered, leaning down to kiss him.

"Well, that's an order I can follow." Tony agreed, kissing him right back.

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Star: High on Doctor Who right now!


	30. Chapter 30

Star: I own nothing!

The fighting had died down, Natasha somehow managing to convince Clint not to go hunt down Loki and kill him. "It's all on Stark, I ain't going to help him if this whole thing blows up in his face." Clint growled. "And knowing Stark, it's going to blow up in his face badly."

"I get the feeling it's not this time." Bruce said calmly. "Since he's started spending time around Tony, Loki's been a lot less stressed out feeling and has even engaged in semi-friendly conversations with others. Tony, apparently, has been a good influence on him."

"Tony, a good influence?" Clint laughed at that. "More likely they're planning on blowing something up."

"JARVIS keeps them from getting too out of hand." Neo said. "Dad, you okay? You're kind of scaring me a bit."

"What? Oh, sorry Neo, I just… wasn't expecting that." Steve said.

"Which part, the fact that two men are apparently dating, or the fact that it's Tony and Loki?" Natasha asked. Steve bristled slightly.

"We had gays in the forties, people just didn't want to talk about it." He said defensively.

"My apologies." Natasha said smoothly. "It's just occurred to me that we never spoke of homosexual relationships around you, so I had no idea what you thought of it."

"I didn't mind Jack." Steve pointed out.

"Fair enough." Natasha said. "Although Jack's a fictional character, and this is real life. So it's more that it's Tony and Loki?"

"Yeah, I mean, talk about unexpected." Steve said, rubbing a hand through his hair. "Although they do spend a lot of time together."

"And they argue like a married couple when they don't agree on something." Neo added with a giggle. "Like I said, Loki's nicer when Tony's around, so I think Tony should keep him."

"I too feel this is good for Loki." Thor added. "I know my brother, and I know that although he is skilled at seduction, romance is not something he is good at lying about. Possibly because he does not have much experience in that area."

"The look on Loki's face though when Tony kissed him." Neo laughed. "Wish I had a camera for that."

"It was a combination of 'I didn't know you were going to do this' and 'I wanted to do this first'." Bruce said. "Tony's a very spur of the moment kind of guy, I wonder how Loki's going to cope with that."

"Aye, Loki likes his plans." Thor agreed. "I think Tony's way will help him relax more."

"So what's this about adoption?" Bruce asked, changing the subject.

"Oh, yeah, well Neo asked the other day to call me dad, and I said we might as well go all the way and have him adopted by me." Steve said. "I was going to announce it to everyone once it'd been finalized, but apparently someone had other ideas." Neo grinned widely at him.

"It just kind of slipped out, sorry." He said, sounding not sorry at all.

"You're an imp." Steve chuckled, ruffling his hair. "And you need a haircut."

"Yeah, kid, you're starting to look less Harry Potter and more sheepdog." Clint teased. Neo barked at him playfully.

"Come here Neo, haircut time." Natasha ordered, taking a pair of scissors out of one of the drawers of the kitchen. "Don't worry, I cut my own hair all the time."

Neo bounced over to her and sat down on a stool. The roombas crowded around as hair began to fall, whirring happily. Neo shoved one away with his foot and it went with a happy 'wheee', which of course prompted the others to go whizzing across the floor.

"You want to keep it a little messy looking?" Natasha asked.

"Yeah, I like looking like Harry Potter." Neo answered cheerfully. "What is your opinion on same sex relationships anyways, Steve?"

"Attraction's not something you can really control, neither is love. I always thought the Bible was a little unfair to people who were different. Some of those writers seemed a bit like bullies to me with all their rules and punishments." Steve said. "If two people love each other, why is it evil?"

"Did you know that Dumbledore in the Harry Potter books is gay?" Neo asked.

"No, I didn't. I haven't read Harry Potter yet, still trying to catch up with my literature." Steve said with a smile.

"He's like the most powerful, awesome wizards in the world and likes to wear purple and other bright colours." Neo said. "The author didn't even say outright he was gay, she just hinted at it during the books and only said it later after the books were done."

"What do you think, Neo?" Bruce asked.

"Like Steve said, not something you can control, so why should you get punished for it." Neo said. "I think people are just silly about these sort of things, and someday people are going to look back and shake their heads at the people against non-heterosexual people."

"So who do you like?" Clint asked. Neo frowned at him. "Come on kiddo, you have to have had some crushes by this point. You've got the brain of an adult after all."

"I don't think I have, actually." Neo said. "I mean, I think some people are nice looking, but when it comes to actually imagining myself doing something with someone, I just can't."

"You could be asexual." Natasha suggested.

"Huh?" Neo craned his neck to look up at her.

"It means you don't experience sexual attraction to people." She explained.

"Does that mean there's something wrong with me?" Neo asked worriedly.

"No, there's a lot of people who identify as asexual. I can bookmark a few sites for you that can explain the different types of sexualities if you'd like." Natasha offered, combing her fingers through Neo's hair. "Although I wonder if they would do that on purpose, the people who created you."

"Why would they do that?" Steve demanded.

"Males and their penises…" Natasha sighed, as if that answered everything. "Making someone who was not likely to get _distracted_ on an assassination attempt would be advantageous, don't you think?"

"We never completely got through the notes that the scientists had on their project." Bruce said. "I can go through and see if there's anything about tweaking his sexuality."

"Does this mean I'll never fall in love?" Neo asked, looking upset.

"Sexuality and romantic attraction are two different, separate things. You can fall in love with someone and not want sex." Natasha soothed. "We're not even sure yet if you're asexual or if you're not mentally mature enough to have an opinion on that anyways, so don't panic just yet. And if you are asexual, it's nothing to be ashamed of."

"And we won't love you any less." Steve added. The tension bled out of Neo and he smiled again.

"Growing up is confusing, isn't it?" Clint teased. Neo stuck his tongue out at him. "Real mature, Potter."

"Piss off Malfoy." Neo said in a passable imitation of an English accent.

"You think you're funny, don't you?" Clint said, flicking Neo on the nose.

"I know I'm funny." Neo replied airily.

"And modest." Natasha added, flicking him in the ear. The last of the tension bled out of the room and everyone laughed. Sure, Steve wasn't so sure that Tony was getting in over his head, but he trusted Tony and they'd all be there if things went sour between him and Loki.

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Star: Review plz!


	31. Chapter 31

Star: I own nothing!

It wasn't until the next morning that Tony and Loki made another appearance. "Nice hickey." Natasha commented to Tony, seeing a dark red mark on his neck. "Clint almost enticed Neo into interrupting you two last night."

"He would have been disappointed, because nothing happened." Tony declared. "So suck on that, Hawkass."

"Nothing happened… yet." Loki added in a purr that sent shivers up Tony's spine. He knew that Loki hadn't even been trying last night, had only been testing Tony to see where his weaknesses might be and that made his knees weak.

"I'd offer you tips on seduction, but something tells me I should be the one asking you for those." Natasha said, her lips quirking up in a smirk.

"Did you two become bros while I wasn't looking?" Tony demanded. "That scares me."

"As it should, Stark." Natasha said. "As it should."

"I'm not sure Agent Romanoff, a woman who was able to trick the Trickster himself might have some ideas that I never thought of." Loki said smoothly. Natasha's smirk grew bigger.

"Okay, moving on from this awkward topic." Clint butted in. "Motion to replace Doomsday as most heartbreaking episode of Doctor Who with Journey's End?"

"Aye!" Came the unanimous cry.

"You know, I didn't think that Doctor Who was going to be so damned depressing when we started watching it." Bruce commented.

"Yeah, it sucks you in with the fun and the adventure, and then by the time it gets to the feels you're already too invested in the characters to get out of it."

"Yup, don't think I could stop watching if I tried." Clint admitted. "At least there shouldn't be any more tear-jerking episodes for a while, right?" Tony just tried to look innocent. "Oh dear god, what the hell is coming now?"

"You have to wait and see!" Tony sing-songed gleefully.

"You are a wicked man, Tony Stark." Loki said, kissing his neck.

"Neo, get your supersoaker." Clint muttered. Neo just shook his head, grinning. "You're a contrary little imp, aren't you?"

"Nope." Neo responded cheerily. Loki rolled his eyes at Neo's antics and Neo responded with a rude gesture.

"Neo." Steve said warningly.

"He started it." Neo said defensively. Steve gave him a stern look. "Fine…"

"Boy's entered his teenage phase, everybody run." Clint quipped. "No but seriously, there can't be anything worse than Journey's End, can there?"

"I think you underestimate the power of a writer." Natasha said. "Things can always get worse." Clint groaned and dropped his head on the table.

"This show is going to be the death of me." He said.

"Mission accomplished then." Tony quipped. "So, did anything interesting happen last night after we left?"

"I might be asexual, apparently." Neo answered.

"What is asexual?" Loki asked.

"It means that you don't experience sexual attraction, that sex doesn't really interest you." Steve answered. "I did some reading last night."

"I wasn't aware that this could occur, is it a condition?" Loki asked.

"No!" Steve growled.

"I was not intending to offend, I've just never heard of this." Loki said, sounding affronted.

"It's not something that's well-known, even here." Tony said, rubbing Loki's shoulder. "There's quite a few people who do feel that way. It's as natural as being gay, straight, bi or anything else. It's just the way the mind is wired. Makes me wonder if the people who made him didn't engineer him that way though."

"That's what we were saying last night." Bruce said. "Maybe they changed something in his genetics, or rewired something before his brain was fully formed. Either way, it's natural to him now so I don't think we should worry about it."

"Exactly, perfectly fine to be asexual." Tony agreed.

"Hmm, I wonder if my daughter Hela is that." Loki mused. "She's never shown any inclination towards sexual relations, which always seemed odd to me."

"Ah well, you're obvious a very sexual creature." Tony said, rubbing at the hickey on his neck. "Maybe we should introduce them and they can have a non-sexual relationship." Neo choked at that.

"Tony stop trying to set up Neo." Steve admonished. Tony shrugged and went back to eating. Whatever else had happened last night, apparently everyone had decided to let him and Loki be.

%&%&%&%

Loki knew Tony was looking forward to the episode they were about to see. His lover had a gleeful obsession with seeing how other people reacted to the show. It was kind of adorable to watch. Scratch that, the way Tony bounced in place when he was excited about a show or movie _was _adorable.

He wrapped an arm around Tony's waist, pulling him close as the show started. Tony draped his arm around his shoulders and immediately began stroking his neck with his thumb. It was pleasant, but it distracted him.

"You're distracting me." He murmured to his lover.

"Oh, so it's okay for you to do it while I'm supposed to be working, but I'm not allowed to do it while you're watching your show?" Tony teased.

"Yes." Loki replied as though this should be obvious.

"And Rhodey said I'd never meet anyone with as big an ego as mine." Tony chuckled. He didn't remove his hand, but he did stop the motions of his thumb, allowing Loki to concentrate a little better. He was happy to see Wilf back, though he wished it could have been Donna instead.

"Does the Master ever truly die?" Loki whispered to Tony.

"I don't know, he's kind of like the Daleks, just can't kill them off completely." Tony answered. "Now hush, it's getting good."

Loki felt the heartbreak rise as the Doctor said goodbye to his former companions. Of course, Rose was when everyone broke and the Ood singing the Doctor into his regeneration didn't help matters. Loki broke at the Doctor's final words

"I don't want to go."

When the episode was done, Loki scowled at the television screen. "I don't like him." He said.

"You said that about Tennant." Tony reminded him with a laugh.

"Well I like Tennant better than Eccleston, even as brilliant as the man was." Loki said stubbornly. "How could anyone live up to Tennant?"

"I think you'll be surprised. Give Matt Smith a chance, I did, and I haven't been disappointed by him." Tony said. "You're cute when you're annoyed."

"I am not." Loki said, trying to sound affronted.

"Oh please, no coupley things, we have young, untainted eyes here." Clint groaned.

"Uh, may I remind you that Neo does have internet access?" Tony said. "You really don't think he's checked."

"No comment." Neo said, trying to look innocent.

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Star: Review plz!


	32. Chapter 32

Star: I own nothing!

Tony's prediction that Loki would actually like Matt Smith came true, much to his irritation. The opinion was cemented when the Doctor made his speech to the Axtraxi at the end. "Fine, he'll do." He told Tony grudgingly.

"See, see I told you." Tony said gleefully. "It gets better."

"I should hope so, if the first episode is where it peaks than it's not a very good season." Loki said, rubbing his thumb against Tony's stomach. "Will we be seeing more River Song in this season? I have many questions about her."

"Don't we all." Clint sighed. Whatever Natasha had told him had mellowed him out towards Loki. They'd probably never see eye-to-eye, but they could have a polite conversation. "But Tony's not going to tell us anything, are you?"

"What would be the fun in telling you?" Tony asked.

**Sir, Miss Potts is coming up the elevator, she seems rather agitated. **JARVIS said.

"Oh boy, what did I forget now?" Tony groaned. Pepper came in, heels clicking on the floor and was immediately laying into Tony about something. Everyone just scattered, not willing to tangle with the furious redhead. Loki left Tony to it, figuring he'd obviously done something to deserve Pepper's wrath and therefore should face it on his own.

He was just sitting down to read in his room when there came a knock at his door. He sighed when he saw that it was Thor. "What is it?" He asked harshly.

"May I speak with you?" Thor asked quietly.

"You already are." Loki pointed out.

"May I come in?" Thor asked. Loki sighed and waved his hand at him. Thor came in and sat down on the end of Loki's bed, giving him a kicked puppy look.

"What is it Thor?" Loki demanded impatiently. "I do not have all day."

"Loki, I know that you hate me-"

"Hate you?" Loki interrupted, staring at Thor as though he'd grown another head. "What?"

"You refuse to speak to me, you act as though I am nothing to you, what else am I supposed to think?" Thor demanded, bright blue eyes filled with pain. "Do you hate me?"

"No!" Loki said, far too sharply. He sighed. "I do not think I could, even if I tried."

"So why do you act like it?" Thor asked. "I know I've done wrong by you Loki, but I am sorry, you must believe me."

"I…" Damn it. Could he lie to Thor now? Thor was obviously beating himself up over all the things that he's ever said that might have made Loki hate him. As much as he despised doing so, he would tell Thor the truth; the two of them had tortured themselves enough over this. "I feared that you hated me, and so closed myself off from you to avoid knowing for certain."

"Loki, how could you think that I'd hate you?" Thor said. "You are my brother."

"I am also a frost giant, and have tried to kill you multiple times." Loki reminded him.

"None of that matters." Thor protested. "None of it ever mattered. How many of your schemes might have killed me in the past? And as for being a frost giant… you cannot help what you are, and it does not define you."

"You would not have said that before." Loki pointed.

"I've changed, I've grown." Thor insisted. "Thanks to mortals. Which, I think has happened to you." Loki scoffed and Thor gave him a look. "You're dating a mortal."

"I'm for all intents and purposes mortal, why shouldn't I date one?" Loki said irritably.

"Because even without your power you still at one point would have seen them as beneath you." Thor said. "Do you feel that now?"

"They're not a nice species." Loki snapped, feeling contrary. "Individuals have their good sides, but on a whole they're rather nasty creatures."

"Aye, but aren't Aesir sometimes?" Thor asked. Loki stared at him.

"When did you become a philosopher?" He demanded.

"When you decided to let go." Thor said softly.

"Oh…" Loki said, just as quietly.

"I thought you were dead, and it was because of me." Thor continued. "I went over my memories over and over, trying to find how I could have prevented all of this from happening."

"It wasn't you, not entirely." Loki said.

"Nay, it was you always being cast aside, always being ridiculed for choosing magic over might." Thor said. "I never saw it, never thought anyone saw you as anything less than I did, and I'm sorry for that."

"And what did you see me as?"

"My equal, my strong right hand." Thor said, as though it should have been obvious. "Your talents balance mine and together we would have been great rulers."

"You would have been the ruler, remember?" Loki said bitterly.

"Aye, and my first act as king would have been to announce joint-kingship." Thor said, grinning widely. Loki stared at him for a couple minutes.

"You're joking." He said flatly. Thor shook his head. "You never told me this." He accused suspiciously.

"I was going to surprise you." Thor said. "And then things didn't go according to plan."

"Not for both of us." Loki muttered.

"Aye." Thor sighed. "I am sorry, brother."

"You can stop saying that now." Loki said impatiently. Thor looked crestfallen. "I'm not angry anymore."

"You aren't?" Thor looked at him hopefully.

"No." Loki assured him. Thor's immediate reaction was to grab him in a joyful hug. "That does not mean I wish to be squashed you oaf!" Loki protested. Thor released him, grinning madly at Loki. "Don't get cocky, I'm certain I can find something else to be angry at you for."

"I've missed you, my brother." Thor said happily. Loki relented with a roll of his eyes.

"Admittedly I've missed you too, though I can't for the life of me think why."

"You are unkind, brother." Thor pouted, but his eyes danced with merriment. "You know, I could petition the AllFather to give you your powers back."

"Let it be, for now." Loki said. "The AllFather will likely not believe you anyways."

"And you wish to stay with Tony." Thor guessed.

"For the moment." Loki replied. He had no illusions about the rest of his life. What he had with Tony could turn out to be short term, but if it didn't… well there were two possibilities then, either stay mortal, or find a way to make Tony immortal. "You could however bring me my books."

"You could not use them though." Thor said, sounding confused.

"I am aware of that, oaf." Loki said, shaking his head. "There's something I want to look into."

"Ah… Ah! I see." Thor looked pleased with himself, probably thinking he knew exactly what Loki was planning. He might, Loki conceded, but then he might not. "I will bring some back for you."

"Best if you could bring them all, only my private collection, they'll fit in this room." Loki said confidently.

"That will take several trips." Thor informed him.

"Yes, I know." Loki said. "if you are worried about someone getting suspicious, just bring them back a few at a time when you go to visit Asgard."

"You probably know best about these sort of things." Thor said. The alarm went off that signaled the Avengers to take up arms.

"Go on, go be a hero." Loki said, waving Thor off. Thor left the room at a gallop and Loki shook his head. He made a disgusted noise when he realized having made up with Thor was going to make Neo unbearably smug for days.

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Star: Review plz!


	33. Chapter 33

Star: I own nothing!

When Loki and Tony emerged from the workshop after the latest round of 'try to get Tony into bed' it was dinnertime and of course Thor was sitting there, looking very much like a dog eagerly awaiting the return of its master. Loki suppressed the urge to roll his eyes. Honestly, how Odin could believe that Thor was suited for politics was beyond him, the man wore his emotions on his sleeve for all to see.

"How are you today, brother?" Thor asked.

"I am fine, oaf." Loki answered, though the word oaf was a little more affectionate than it would have been. "And you?"

"I am well." Thor replied. The smug, self-satisfied look on Neo's face, as he looked back and forth between Loki and Thor, made Loki want to stab something, but he settled for the next best thing.

"That is a very unattractive look on you." He said. Neo gave him a disinterested look.

"Really, you wore that look on your face for most of the time you were trying to take over the Earth, so what you're saying is it doesn't look good on you either." Barton said. Loki glared at him. "So basically you're calling yourself ugly."

"Basically you are also implying that Neo is ugly." Loki shot back.

"Ha, Neo's way cuter than you'll ever be." Neo looked up from his spaghetti, noodles falling out of his mouth.

"Yes, he's adorable." Loki said sarcastically.

"Fuck you, I am adorable." Neo declared.

"Neo, language, please." Steve sighed.

"Sorry dad." Neo said, not sounding very sorry at all.

"Yep, definitely a teenager." Tony commented. "Kiddo you're going to graduate into adulthood by the time you're a year old, how does that feel?"

"I dunno, how does it feel to grow up normally?" Neo shrugged.

"Touche." Tony said, leaning against Loki.

"So I've had a look through the files we never actually touched on Neo." Bruce started.

"How come you didn't read them in the first place?" Loki asked.

"We determined that there was nothing wrong with Neo, besides having something in the back of his head and no bellybutton and decided to leave the rest of it alone." Tony replied.

"Neo has something in the back of his head? I did not know this." Loki said, annoyed. He didn't like not having information. Neo turned around and parted the hair on the back of his head. Loki could see a round something through the thick thatch of hair. "What?"

"Have you seen the Matrix?" Neo asked.

"Yes, Tony insisted." Loki said drily. It clicked. "It's like the thing they used to connect to the Matrix, isn't it?"

"Yeah, they used it to download knowledge right into my brain. Didn't have to learn anything on my own, they did that all for me." Neo said. "I don't remember it, but I doubt it was pleasant."

"It cannot be removed?" The thought of something in his head, going into his brain, was unsettling.

"We might wind up damaging his brain if we tried." Bruce said. "It doesn't hurt him, so it's best if we just leave it alone. Anyways, back to what I was saying. I had a look through on their notes on your DNA and neurological system, Neo, and it doesn't look like they'd changed anything that would have made you asexual."

"But if they did not change anything, should I not be asexual?" Loki asked.

"Not necessarily, we don't know exactly where sexual attraction comes from, whether it's completely genetic, or something else. There have been documented cases of identical twins, which are genetically identical, in which one twin is a different sexual orientation from the other."

"So I really could be naturally asexual." Neo said.

"Well, let's just take it as it comes." Steve said. "We figure out new things about ourselves all the time."

"Aye, even if we've lived centuries, right brother?" Thor said.

"Yes, I suppose it's true." Loki sighed, admitting defeat.

"This is a weird fucking family." Barton commented to no one in particular.

"What family?" Thor asked, sounding confused.

"This…" Barton said, gesturing around the table. "This sad bag of personality disorders and psychoses somehow managed to turn into a fairly functioning family unit, weird as hell."

"Are you including me in this?" Loki asked, feeling bemused.

"You live here don't you? Kinda snuck into the picture without us noticing." Barton shrugged. "We're stuck with you now."

"I'm not sure if I should be offended by that or not." Loki said. He contemplated the implications of what Barton was saying. He'd been accepted, enough so that they considered him a part of them. Did he want that? Well, he already had Tony, which meant the others were sort of a package deal. Natasha wasn't too bad, and Barton at least would provide him with one person to needle at for fun.

"So if we're a family, and Steve is dad, does that make us all the aunts and uncles?" Tony asked, breaking Loki out of his thoughts.

"I guess so." Steve said.

"Sweet, that means I'm the ultra-cool uncle!" Tony crowed, pumping a fist in the air. Loki and Natasha rolled their eyes together.

"Or the ultra-lame uncle." Barton muttered.

"No, that's you, Hawkass." Tony quipped. "So what do you think of being uncle Loki?" He asked. Loki nearly choked on his food and Neo burst out laughing.

"If you ever call me that…" Loki warned.

"You'll what?" Neo demanded, grinning wickedly at him. Loki cursed at him and stabbed at his food moodily. When dinner was over he intercepted Neo. He had something he needed to discuss, something that factored into his plans.

"You are not overly thrilled about being immortal, are you?" Loki asked quietly. Neo gave him a suspicious look and shook his head. "Because most of your family is in fact mortal. What if you transferred your immortality to someone else?" Neo's look got even more suspicious. "Tony." Loki clarified.

"Isn't it a bit early to be considering that?" Neo asked, crossing his arms over his chest. "I mean, you're mortal right now."

"For the moment." Loki replied. "I've no illusions that it will stay that way. It will probably go on for as long as Odin thinks I need to be taught a lesson and I'm certain Thor and Frigga will wear him down as well."

"Even so," Neo persisted. "You only just started going out with him, it's a little early to be thinking that you want to spend your life with him. I mean, I know I'm only a few months old, but I know that it doesn't happen like in the movies."

"Yes, yes." Loki said impatiently. "But I am a man who likes to have things planned out, and the further in advance that I have things planned out, the better." Neo stared at him for a long moment and Loki reminded himself that while the clone was very naïve in some things, he was also very, very clever.

"Would I be able to rescind my agreement to this if I chose?" He finally asked.

"What for?" Loki asked.

"Things change, people change." Neo shrugged.

"Somehow I don't think I'd be able to force you if you did say no, you are infinitely stubborn." Loki said.

"Well, they do say that personality is somewhat genetic." Neo replied. He closed his eyes for a moment, rocking on his heels. "I agree, for now."

"Of course." Loki agreed. It was best if it wasn't binding. Anything could happen, after all. He could stay mortal, or he and Tony could fall out. He didn't like the idea of the second option; he wanted to keep Tony, and he was very possessive. He would let things take their course, however, with no manipulations from him. There was a time and a place for meddling and what could be love was not one of them.

He settled on the couch with Tony, letting his lover put his arm around his shoulders. It wasn't easy for him to let go and not be in control, but he would try. For the sake of a life where he wasn't just second best all the time, he would try.

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Star: Review plz!


	34. Chapter 34

Star: I own nothing!

"I need to talk to you." Steve said, looming in the doorway of Loki's room. Loki had an idea of what this was about so he gestured Steve in. "Neo told me about your agreement."

"It's nothing set in stone." Loki replied.

"That's what he said too, but I want to hear it from you." Steve said.

"Honestly it may not come to that at all." Loki admitted. "I've no idea where my future lies right now and I'm just trying to cover all the possibilities I can. I know Neo does not like the idea of being immortal, therefore I approached him about giving up his immortality for Tony."

"Have you told Tony about this plan yet?" Loki rubbed at his eyes.

"I'm not sure how to approach the subject, our relationship is still very new, and I doubt that he's thinking of the long-term." He admitted.

"Then why are you?" Steve asked frankly.

"I don't like not having plans made out." Loki replied.

"It's more than that." Steve persisted. Loki sighed, wondering what to say. If he was going to be a part of this dysfunctional family, he was going to have to be honest sometimes.

"I want to keep Tony. I want him by my side for however long I live." Loki admitted. "If you do not want me to involve Neo, I will respect that. There are probably a few options to gain what I want and I may not need Neo's help at all, but if he wants this, truly wants this, I do not think you should stand in his way."

"I know he wants to be mortal, to be normal." Steve said. "There's no such thing as normal though."

"It's more he doesn't want to watch you all fade away and he has to be alone." Loki said. "Just as I fear with Tony."

"I just want to be sure this is something he wants and not something he thinks he wants." Steve said.

"There's plenty of time for him to think on it." Loki reminded him. "I highly doubt that Neo is going to let anyone talk him into something, he's too bullheaded for that. Fates only know my manipulations haven't worked on him like I'd hoped."

"You're a lot more open." Steve observed.

"I'm trying something new." Loki replied wryly. "Lies have not done me much good, but don't think that my mischief making days are over."

"Try not to make Clint use you as target practice." Steve warned him.

"Captain, Captain," Loki chided. "I'm far more clever than that." Steve shook his head.

"You should talk to Tony about this." He informed Loki. "I doubt he'll be happy with you if he finds out about this from someone else."

"You're probably right." Loki sighed, getting up. "I think you're talking this team Dad thing a little too seriously." Steve chuckled as Loki left the room, heading down to the workshop. Neo was already down there, helping Tony with his latest project. Good, Neo could back him up if Tony got testy.

"I need to speak to you about something, Tony." Loki said. Tony waved a hand at him. "Immortality." Tony looked up then.

"That's a pretty big something." He said. "What about immortality?"

"Immortality for you." Loki said. Tony gave him a confused look. "Tony, I could regain my powers, my immortality someday, and I do not intend to leave you behind when that happens."

"Isn't it a little early to be thinking of the rest of our lives?" Tony asked, grinning in a bemused way.

"Yes, it is." Loki admitted. "But I like to have plans for everything."

"I keep telling you, you need to go with the flow." Tony chuckled.

"Let's try not to change the way I've done things for centuries in a day, shall we?" Loki said, rolling his eyes. Goodness knows Tony was incredible, but he could be so oblivious sometimes. "I wanted to have this at least planned out, in case."

"In case." Tony repeated.

"I'm not going to act on it, I'm mortal anyways, there would be no point. But if I should become immortal again…" Loki trailed off. "Neo has agreed to lend me some assistance if that day does come."

"What do you mean?" Tony asked.

"I may be willing to give up my immortality." Neo said sounding nonchalant. "I mean if it's for you, I'm not giving it to Loki."

"I wouldn't take it if you would." Loki informed him carelessly. Neo made a face at him.

"Neo that's kind of a big deal, you know?" Tony said.

"Yeah, I know, I already talked about it with Steve." Neo assured him. "He asked me all kinds of questions to make sure I hadn't been coerced into this. I just don't like the idea of being immortal."

"Yeah I know. I'm not sure I do either." Tony looked at Loki. "Were you thinking of that possibility as well?"

"Yes." Loki admitted. He didn't like that possibility, he didn't like what might happen then. "I would not force you into anything. I… you mean more to me to play with you that way. There are some lines I will not cross and to cause you real pain by doing something, no, I will not do that."

"Thor?" Tony asked. Loki flinched; it was a fair question.

"Everything, except the times I tried to kill him, and I plead insanity on those occasions, were to teach him a lesson, or to have a little fun with him. If I had thought I'd really hurt him, in body or in spirit, with what I might do, I would not do it." Loki explained. "I would not alienate you from me for my own selfishness, it would only hurt me in the end."

"Wow, that's a lot of soul-bearing right there." Tony said, sounding genuinely impressed.

"Don't remind me, it's painful." Loki growled. Tony kissed him and he felt a little bit better. "The things I do for you." Loki sighed.

"Would you become mortal for me?" Tony asked.

"I am already mortal." Loki pointed out.

"If you got it back, would you be willing to give it up. Because granting me immortality would be the same as you giving it up, don't you see?" Tony asked. "I've thought about this, thought about it quite a bit when I was figuring out if I actually wanted to go for a relationship, I thought about what if you became immortal, what if. We can always just do a Ianto and Jack, minus the dying young part."

"What, I watch you grow old and move on without you?" Loki said.

"Let's just not think about it right now, because it's not as though we're getting married tomorrow, we might figure out that we hate each other and then what's the point of all this planning then, you need to stop planning and planning, you exhaust me with all your plans." Tony rambled. Loki huffed a laugh.

"You see things so simply." He teased.

"Eh well, complicating things just makes a mess of them." Tony shrugged. "By all means look for a way to make Neo mortal still, I know he wants that, but don't do it for me if you're going to do it."

Neo and Loki looked at each other. Neo made a face and Loki laughed derisively. "I'm already trying to be nice to him, don't push it." Loki informed Tony.

"He's got a point, it's not a good point, but it's a point." Neo added.

"Brat." Loki muttered.

"Asshole." Neo muttered back.

"I'll get the Captain to wash your mouth out with soap."

"Alright ladies, less chitchat, more work." Tony interrupted. "No more thinking of the future, just think about now, alright?"

"I will try." Loki said, shaking his head. "The things I do for you."

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Star: Next chapter will be the last. I kind of ran out of ideas on this one, so I'm sorry if it took a weird direction towards the end.


	35. Chapter 35

Star: Last chapter, thanks to everyone who stuck with this, even when I started to have a hard time figuring out how to finish it.

New Year's Eve was a time of reflection, so Steve Rogers was reflecting. He'd come a long way in a year. Woke up in the future, saved the world from an alien god, joined a team of heroes, adopted a clone of said alien god, and then welcomed the alien god into the weird little family they'd all made. He shook his head and chuckled; if they could only see him now.

Neo was maturing quickly, and endured being treated as a child and as an adult in different situations with measured patience. He snapped sometimes of course, but was always apologetic about it later. He was a good kid, and was turning into a good man.

He watched Neo try to convince Clint to give him some of his beer. Steve smiled; Neo didn't even like beer, he just wanted to steal the beer and make Clint chase him for it. He was still very much a child in some ways, even if he didn't want to admit it.

He let his eyes wander and then settle on Loki, who was sitting on a loveseat with Tony, talking, and necking. Since Loki figured out that he made people uncomfortable when he started showing physical affection to Tony he had not stopped, especially since it was Clint who would protest half the time. Steve shook his head; they could take away Loki's power, but they certainly couldn't take away his mischief.

It kind of surprised everyone how well Loki fit into their odd family dynamic, no one being more surprised than Loki himself. Steve suspected there was a lifetime of reasons for that and even a shrink would quall at them, but Loki was adjusted. It was mostly Tony, he knew, that accounted for the change in Loki.

That wasn't to say Loki was completely changed. It rather he was channeling his chaotic tendencies towards things that were simply annoying, rather than nasty. For instance he enjoyed needling Clint and setting various pranks around the Tower. He was still easily offended by things, though Steve could tell he was trying to work on that.

He and Thor seemed to be mending things as well. The two of them spoke to one another and spent time in each other's company. Thor was kind of tiptoeing around Loki, worried that something he might say or do would alienate his brother. Loki for his part was still wary around Thor, as though he couldn't quite believe that Thor was not putting him on.

Christmas had been good, and nature had obliged them with snowfall. Neo's shriek of joy had nearly caused Bruce to Hulk out, but it was worth it to watch him run around on the balcony in the snow, clad in only boxers, dancing around foolishly. Winter was clearly Neo's favourite season Steve had commented, with Loki merely shrugging and pointing out that he was a frost giant.

Loki had a look on his face now that suggested that Tony was in for a time tonight. They'd turned Tony turning down sex into a kind of game, as far as Steve could tell. Loki had yet to break Tony, but tonight was a special night. He just hoped they'd keep it down, super soldier hearing and all.

Loki seemed to have dropped the issue of immortality versus mortality for the time being. When Steve had asked about it Loki had rolled his eyes and said something along the lines of 'the things I do for Tony'. Steve knew the issue wouldn't go away though if the two of them did decide that they were going to get hitched someday.

Wasn't that an odd thought? But the more Steve thought about it, he thought it couldn't have been anyone else. Tony and Loki understood each other in a way that no one else around did. They knew exactly when to push and when to back off, which was why Loki hadn't brought up immortality again. Steve knew it wasn't far from his mind though.

He thought about Neo giving up his immortality sometimes. It made sense, in a way. Neo's family was almost all human, he lived on Earth and he knew he was going to grow old far slower than the people around him, the people he loved. Steve understood that, a little. So, if Neo decided sometime in the future to help Loki give Tony immortality, Steve would let him, it was Neo's to give after all.

But, who knew what the future would bring. Loki could stay mortal, Tony could become immortal, and that was a bit of a scary thought, or neither could happen. It just wasn't worth worrying about right now. Right now, everything was good, everything was right in the world. They saved people every couple of days and came home to watch movies and horse around.

He joined in as the countdown started. "HAPPY NEW YEAR!" Everyone screamed. Tony pulled Loki in for a very indecent kiss, making Clint start gagging. Neo bounced over to Steve and hugged him hard, nearly squeezing the breath out of him. Steve hugged just as hard back. A new year, full of new beginnings for everyone; that sounded just about right to him.

THE END

Star: And that's the end! Sorry for the shoddiness, like I said, couldn't figure out how to end this and finally got tired of going over and over again with it. Not entirely satisfied, but I am content with how this finished. Thank you all for sticking with it, and I'll be back with a different story hopefully soon. Heads up for The Last Companion: Familiar Faces from Across the Void, coming to a fanfiction site near you!


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